Anemone (2025) review

Jem (Sean Bean), a former soldier from Northern Ireland, drives out into the woods to locate his reclusive (and "godless") brother Ray (Daniel Day-Lewis) and convince him to return home because Ray's wife Nessa (Samantha Morton) misses him and his son Brian (Samuel Bottomley) needs his help, but before he can drag him back to civilization the men spend time swimming in the ocean, hunting, drinking, wrestling and reminiscing.  Most filmmakers making their feature debuts don't have the luxury of having a father who just so happens to be one of the best living actors, so Yale graduate Ronan has that in his favor, except aside from assembling a strong cast, this is an exceptionally drawn out and tiresome story about post-traumatic stress disorder and regret.  There are some nice shots in it (courtesy of cinematographer Ben Fordesman) although they aren't nearly enough to distract from the two try-hard monologues Papa Day-Lewis has to deliver (the first involves a pedophile priest and the other has to do with killing a boy) and the overload of bad symbolism (there's a levitating woman, an aquatic creature with a human face and a gigantic dead fish).