In 2017 British actor Daniel Day-Lewis starred in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread and it marked his 21st appearance in a film. Not long after, he announced that he was retiring from his considerable career acting.

It was his second period of retiring, after his first, from 1997 to 2002, where he chose to train as a shoe-maker in Italy.

It’s most definitely a family affair that has seen him return once again, for a film his son Ronan Day-Lewis has directed, and one he has also co-written with.

Leaving his home in Northern England is Jem (Sean Bean). He’s taken to the road on his motorbike, on a journey, to a desolate part of the woods he’s never visited before, to meet someone he hasn’t seen for years – his brother Ray (Day-Lewis).

He comes bearing news from his wife Nessa (Samantha Morton), about their teenage son Brian (Samuel Bottomley), whom he has never seen.

Ray is living in a basic hut in the middle of nowhere, and Jem understands why, having spent a small amount of time with him, that he has a disturbed history that just hasn’t let him go. Despite the mental baggage he still carries, Jem and Nessa believe that he can be the only one to help with his troubled son, but will his demons allow him to do so?

Daniel Day-Lewis, is, without doubt, not only one of the greatest actors of his generation, but of all time. So it’s a relief to see him return to the screen where he undoubtedly belongs.

It does come at a price however; this film has an emotional weight to it that is quite suffocating.

Certainly Day-Lewis is completely mesmerising, and in being so, makes everyone else raise their game, like Bean and Morton, substantially. But there is very little light, both emotionally and physically, that makes it a draining process throughout.

It’s a stunning debut from Ronan, which manages to have the intimacy of a two-handed stage play at certain times, then embrace raw and bleak landscapes at others.

His father is captivating all of the time, but his characters’ complicated past is one that is a tireless grind, with the pain suffering constantly hanging around his neck for all to see, that is plainly haunting.

It’s ultimately about redemption, but it just takes far too long coming, and his suffering is shared empathically with the bewildered audience, who know doubt share a collective sigh of relief when the final credits roll.

The fact that Day-Lewis has returned is worth celebrating in itself, but it comes at a price with a film that certainly takes its toll on all who are subjected to it, with its lingering emotional pain.