Contrary to many negative reviews published by various critics of world renown, watching Sally Potter's latest feature "The Roads Not Taken", with its name borrowed from a Robert Frost poem of relevant nature, struck me deep to my soul's core. As a person currently dealing with and witnessing a loved one go through dementia, I daresay this portrayal of a life fallen apart and the performances delivered by the actors could not have been more realistic and convincing.

"The Roads Not Taken" is a new 2020 movie that is actually not long at all, even under 1.5 hours and the writer and director is Sally Potter from England. And not only that. Apparently, this project is/was really close to her heart as she also worked as an editor here and contributed to the score/soundtrack. It is not the very first time for her in both departments, but still unusual. Potter has been making films since the late 1960s already, so for over 50 years now. Massively long career and she started with short films of course as they usually do. She is also 70 noww, almost 71, so almost relatively young still if we look at how long she has been in the industry. She also has not been the most prolific filmmaker and there are occasional breaks of sevveral years in her body of work. Anyway, experience pays off for her and so she gets Oscar winner Javier Bardem to play the lead role here. I will get to him later. His inclusion as well as the inclusion of young actress Elle Fanning made this an interesting project for me as I like both actors quite a bit and was always more Team Elle than Team Dakota, if you can even say that. Still good for the latter to have worked with Tarantino recently. Both their careers seem to be going well right now. And seriously, how can you not love Bardem, even if you maybe have not seen his Spanish-languiage films. This film here also has Spanish on some occasions, namely when he talks to Selma Hayek's character. Yep, another big name, but I must say her character and the story linked to said character were not among the film's highlights for me, even if I don't mind her as an actress, actually probably like her more than I did ten years ago or so. Another Oscar-nominated actress in here is Laura Linney. Fanning's character is occasionally on the phone with her, but she only has really one scene when she is seen, even if that is an okay scene and I was a bit surprised that I liked it because honestly Linney as an actress I have never been too fond of by any means and I feel she has a tendency to play the same character in every movie. Briefly back to Hayek, she plays the protagonist's childhood love if I understood correctly and I found it a bit difficult to understand if her character is just a spirit and maybe deceased or actually there, but this could also just be me. It made me wonder though with her connection to this celebration for the dead that Bardem's character goes to. It is also a but unclear which of the stwo story lines she is a part of. Maybe I would have to rewatch to understand 100% and also understand a little more. As for the title, I like it and I knew that there is a poem with a similar title. But not a book this is based on apparently, even if I think i read people saying something like they are not too happy with the adaptation, but I may just be erring here too. Maybe not with the execution. And I am not sure if the film is linked to this really old poem that I know from the title. Not too important anyway. What counts is the film as a stand-alone achievement. And there I would say it is not too bad. Yes, it may not be entirely smooth from beginning to end and especially the back and forth from the two stories is a bit uneven here and there, but like I said in the title of my review, I felt that Bardem carried it fairly nicely overall. Then again, like I also said, I am a bit biased when it comes to this actor for sure because I like him quite a bit.

So this film is all about the "what if". How would his life gone forward had he left his wife and daughter when the latter as still very young and sacrificed his family for his craft. He is a writer. This is the second scenario, the one that has consideraly less screen time. There he stayed on a Greek island and actually wrote a book that is also closely connection with the question "What if?" And he seeks help from a duo of girls, one of them attracted to him, the other creeped out. That was fairly funny. He also seeks much more from them. At least from one of them and you know what I mean with that. But there is also tragedy because in the end he dies all alone on his boat. In the other reality, he does not die, but he is very sick and not there mentally 100% anymore. However, the one thing he is not is alone. He has the most loving and caring daughter who sacrifices pretty much everything, most of all her professional life to be there for her struggling ailing father. To help him when it's about visiting doctors, dentists etc. no matter what happens. And him swallowing the liquid that is there to clean his mouth after analysis is still among the more harmless things. When he pees all over his pants in this stressful situation at the dentis is among the harsher things and it was pretty sad to watch, also because it has a lot to do with dignity. But even there, his daughter (played by Fanning of course) knows no disgust and is there for him helping him with changing his trousers. And she keeps defending him when he is attacked by security personnel after taking somebody else's dog. Or she is there to speak up for him when people keep talking as if he is not in the room, although he understands them. So yeah, with the dog scene and this being linked with Hayek's character in her final scene, Hayek's character is probably also from the string of events with Bardem's character struggling mentally. Also fits that she is mentioned by Linney's character once and also that she comes to his bed early on, spirit/apparition or not. She is there. And how he calls his dog his son is a bit on the heartbreaking side, even if sadly the film never delivered as much on an emotional level for me as I would have hoped it could. But yeah, how he talks about his dog there, he seems to be pretty clean mentally and also speaks in a way where you can understand him well, whcih wasn't the case all before that and fittingly we hear Fanning's character complain and worry about the same issue. Not Bardem's fault though that it came a bit short emotionally for me. Not at all. Maybe it was just me anyway because honestly I think some of the other audience members in my showing had tears in their faces when the closing credits rolled in. I would have liked too. The one thing I struggled with honestly was near the end how Bardem's character in the key story line remembers or imagines his existence and death in the other story line. That did not fit in my opinion and also made no sense, especially because this life never existed. Only we know about it and are we supposed to believe that he in his struggling mental state can really make such a clear imagination and connection? Or maybe all we see in greece is really all he imagined and not how things really would have turned out. There is no clean explanation or solution there. Honestly before realizing these strings are parallels to each other i kinda felt that maybe these are just scenes from the past, from when he was still healthy, but it becomes clear pretty quickly that this is not the case. Still an interesting idea, even if the editing wwas not always top-notch. I am surprised there aren't really (m)any other films who take such an approach. Okay, what else is there to say. Unfortunately, I must also say that, as much as I liked Bardem, I was not always too fond of Fanning's portrayal. Once or twice, she went a bit over the top and also did not nail the emotional moments as much as I hoped she could. She still isn't bad, don't get me wrong, she is still among the most talented under 30 in my opinion. Oh well, she is barely over 20 and should have a bright career ahead of her hopefully. I will be cheering for her for sure. And she also has a few good moments, like when she cries from joy when he remembers her name at the end. There we also see that we never really found out her name before that, so of course it is a special moment for her character and he also feels her joy and is happy with her. Bardem acted this scene very nicely, just like everything else. And yeah, you cannot really blame Fanning for not (yet) being on par with an acting power house like Bardem. She still held her own pretty well next to him most of the time. So yes, I think it is a bit disappointing that this film has received almost no awards recognition, especially for Bardem, but the project's overall poor reception hurt his chances too. Still, it is not bad and I give it a thumbs-up and I say that you should not be kept away by the negative reviews and give this film a chance, especially if you are as much of a fan of the two lead actors here. Go see it! Also pretty wild to see all these European countries listed as producers here. That I did not expect. Okay, enough now. In short: Go watch this movie please. By the way, as for Bardem and his character, I sometimes had to think of how different paths would have resulted in major life changes here and coincidence and choices are also a huge thing for Bardem's Chigurh, so as different as the characters may be, there are also parallels. Maybe just me paying attention to that. That is all now though.

Despite having heard about it for a few years, I've somehow have never got round to visiting the indie cinema venue HOME in Manchester. Very happy to find out it has recently re-opened after the Lockdown, I got set to finally take the road and go HOME.

View on the film:

Spending the majority of the film saying garbled, broken dialogue, Javier Bardem gives a harrowing performance as Leo, whose suffering from dementia is expressed by Bardem in disconnected, far-off glances, with only brief glimpses of recognition towards those around him. Caring for Leo on her own,Elle Fanning gives a excellent, measured performance as Molly, whose love and compassion for her dad is played by Fanning with increased sorry from seeing the increased deteriorating state of Leo.

Having cared for her brother Nic Potter during the last two years of his life as Nic suffered from Pick's disease, composer/writer/director Sally Potter & cinematographer of Slow West and The Favourite (2015/2018-both also reviewed)Robbie Ryan sail into a intimate, raw atmosphere of grainy, partially obscured close-ups on Molly attempting to hold the relationship together,with Potter wisely deciding to play with no score the moments when all the pressure is cast across Molly's face.

Taking place over one day, the screenplay by Potter keeps the drama between father and daughter neatly understated and grounded, following Molly having to change Leo out of his clothes, and the sudden shock of fear, as Molly takes her eye off him for one moment whilst out shopping, to be met with the sight of Leo having wandered off.

Initially appearing to be fragments of Leo's memories, Potter increasingly makes clear that the flashbacks are actually several parallel lives Leo is living through, which comes off as poorly judged, due to how delicate and up close and personal the drama with Molly and Leo is, leading to a sudden jolt of a abrupt ending on the road not taken.