For Anthony Hopkins, a grandfather role with personal echoes

By JAKE COYLE
AP Film Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — The “heart and soul” of a film is an often-overused term, but it’s practically unavoidable when it comes to Anthony Hopkins in James Gray’s “Armageddon Time.” In warm, intimate scenes, Hopkins’ grandfather mentors the movie’s 11-year-old protagonist. For the 84-year-old, who won best actor at the Academy Awards last year for his patriarch slipping into dementia in “The Father,” it’s another radiant twilight performance and a gentle, masterful capstone to one of acting’s most distinguished careers. The film is deeply person for Gray, but the grandfather scenes also transported Hopkins back to his youth in Wales and his own time with his grandparents. “Armageddon Time” opens in select theaters Friday.