On screen and behind the camera, “Anemone” is a family affair. The movie charts a fractured sibling relationship and is a collaboration between real-life father and son, Daniel and Ronan Day-Lewis. The elder Day-Lewis stars; Ronan directs, and they co-wrote the flick together. That’s one talented family!
“Anemone” is also one of last year’s most overlooked and underrated movies, at least in my opinion. Marking Daniel Day-Lewis’ return to cinema after his supposed retirement post 2017’s “Phantom Thread,” this psychological drama wasn’t quite the triumphant return many hoped for. It got a lukewarm reception from critics, and its box office takings were minimal, at best.
It’s just been added to Netflix’s movie library (on Mar. 28), offering “Anemone” a second chance to find its audience, and it’s worthy of a reappraisal. As far as I’m concerned, when you have Daniel Day-Lewis delivering captivating monologues, a movie can never be a waste of time. Pair the three-time Oscar winner with Sean Bean, and you see why “Anemone” has plenty to offer.
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What is ‘Anemone’ about?
![ANEMONE - Official Trailer [HD] - Only in Theaters October 3 - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/HVqoyMi98OI/maxresdefault.jpg)
Jem Stoker (Sean Bean) leaves behind his family to head into the remote wilderness. But he’s not on a camping or hunting trip; he’s searching for his estranged brother, Ray (Daniel Day-Lewis), who has abandoned his troubled son, Brian (Samuel Bottomley), to live a life of complete solitude.
Once the brothers reunite, old tensions and traumatic past events bubble to the surface, and while Jem’s goal is to convince Ray to return to civilization to speak with his wayward son, Ray’s stubbornness and deep scars from his past life as a soldier in Northern Ireland make this objective surprisingly tough.
“Anemone” is a meditative drama about family ties and trauma passed from one generation to the next. It may be narratively slight, but it’s very big on thematic ambition.
Give ‘Anemone’ a chance on Netflix this weekend
The first thing you should know about “Anemone” is that it’s decidedly slower paced. Heck, maybe it’s even a little pretentious with regular lingering shots of nature and some extremely unsubtle metaphors. Day-Lewis’s Ray is haunted by the past, so the movie has a literal ghost hanging over him while he sleeps. The movie is not exactly an accessible crowd-pleaser.
However, where it shines is in its performances. Patient viewers are treated to one of, if not the, greatest actors in modern cinema history, going on a tear. Ray is a complex figure. When his backstory is revealed, he’s sympathetic, but before then, he’s pretty brash, combative, and unlikable. Day-Lewis revels in playing such a multi-dimensional figure and delivers intense monologues that put the focus on his incredible command of the screen.
Sean Bean is no slouch playing off Day-Lewis, and while Jem doesn’t quite get the same knotty arch as Ray, Bean takes the material given to him and squeezes out every dramatic beat. The movie’s best moments are these two powerhouse performers sitting around a fireplace and conversing. Even with so much of the brother’s resentment and frustration coming to light, there’s even more that goes unsaid, but these emotions remain tangible.
It seems my overall positive feeling towards “Anemone” is closer to a hot take than the common consensus. On Rotten Tomatoes, the 2025 drama holds a lukewarm 52% score from critics (drops lower to 45% when filtered by “top critics”). Viewers weren’t exactly much kinder, rating it a merger 58%. I can understand why this movie wouldn’t work for some viewers/critics, but if you can focus on the stuff it does well, there’s a very worthwhile watch here.
If you want to watch Daniel Day-Lewis roaring back onto the silver screen, delivering a powerful performance, in a flawed, but undeniably well-polished drama, “Anemone” isn’t a movie you should dismiss based on its critical reception. There’s a lot to like about this drama movie, even if all that good stuff comes with a caveat or two. I was able to overlook them; you can too.
However, if you’re looking for something a little more universally popular, here’s a guide to everything new on Netflix in April 2026, which includes plenty more movies landing on the streaming platform in just a matter of days. Sadly, there’s nothing else on the slate with Daniel Day-Lewis, though.
Watch “Anemone” on Netflix now
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