Key Highlights
- 54 years ago, 13-year-old Daniel Day-Lewis made his on-screen debut as an extra in a four-Oscar-nominated film.
- Daniel Day-Lewis retired from acting in 2017 after completing Phantom Thread but has now returned with Anemone.
- Anemone, co-written and directed by his son Ronan Day-Lewis, marks Daniel Day-Lewis’s return to the screen.
- The film is a modest British drama that follows a man reconnecting with his estranged brother in northern England.
From Extra to Oscar Winner: A Legendary Career
In 1971, a 13-year-old boy appeared briefly and silently on screen. This moment marked the beginning of what would become one of Hollywood’s most revered careers. The flicker of screen time, now mostly forgotten, was the debut of Daniel Day-Lewis, an actor who would go on to be the only man in history to win three Academy Awards for Best Actor.
Throughout his career, which spanned less than 35 films over five decades, Day-Lewis’s performances were not just praised but reshaped the art form.
From “My Left Foot” (1989) to “Lincoln” (2012), and “There Will Be Blood” (2007), his dedication was legendary. For “There Will Be Blood,” he built canoes for “The Last of the Mohicans” and refused to break character during his wheelchair scenes, even off-screen.
A Return with Anemone
After a seven-year hiatus following the completion of “Phantom Thread” in 2017, Day-Lewis returned to the screen with “Anemone,” a modest British drama co-written and directed by his son, Ronan Day-Lewis. The film tells the story of a man who sets out into the forests of northern England to reconnect with his estranged brother.
Anemone’s release on November 21, 2025, has drawn mixed reviews. Despite its visually rich cinematography and brooding score, some critics found the pacing deliberate or even aimless. The film’s IMDb page lists a runtime of 125 minutes and a modest critical reception: 5.7 out of 10 based on over 4,500 user reviews, alongside a Metascore of 53.
Greatness in a Slower Cinema
Anemone doesn’t fit neatly into the high-volume content cycles that have dominated the entertainment industry since Day-Lewis’s retirement. Fewer directors are asking actors to disappear into roles for six months, and fewer actors seem willing to do so. Yet, Day-Lewis remains singular: a master craftsman uninterested in volume or attention.
The question over Anemone isn’t whether Daniel Day-Lewis is still great.
It’s whether his greatness fits this era of filmmaking. Critics have pointed to gaps in pacing and narrative cohesion but also noted the film’s rich use of space and stillness, drawing comparisons to early works by Lynne Ramsay and Andrew Haigh.
Whether Anemone succeeds on conventional terms may miss the point. What it shows is that Day-Lewis still cares enough about the art form to return with a quiet collaboration with his son, not a studio spectacle.
His performance as Ray—a quiet man racked by emotional inheritance—has been called “disarmingly restrained.”
In an industry increasingly scrutinizing who gets to create and why, Anemone stands out. It’s a question rather than a
Conclusion
has the film culture changed too much in seven years for this kind of cinema to grow again?
