And When Did You Last See Your Father?

I'm astonished by the miserable so-and-sos above who complain about the "overdone production" on this movie.

Anand Tucker and his crew have taken obvious pains to elevate a conventional story into a visual tone poem. Every shot shines with polish, care, and attention. If it said "A Ridley Scott Movie" at the beginning, the reviews would read "Scott brings his usual visual excellence to bear."

A terrific little movie, elevated out of its class, with nice performances (I especially enjoyed the underused Gina McKee, who is practically luminous in every scene).

Now, the rest of you get back to watching and praising the drab and visually tedious kitchen sink junk that the British film industry does "so" well...

This is a beautifully written, well acted but above all wonderfully directed film looking at a man who learns about himself by finding out about his father. Colin Firth plays a real writer who wrote an auto-biographical novel about his relationship with his father played by Jim Broadbent. It's not a spoiler to say that the father is dying because that diagnosis is given very early on. While the family waits for him to die, events take Firth's memories effortlessly through his past showing him played very well by young actors at 8 and 17.

The events are funny and moving but restrained within a believable reality. Firth learns to live with his father's behaviour as we see that he isn't perfect either. It's positive about life without being sentimental, terrific film.

After seeing 'When Did You Last See Your Father?', I was reminded that I was relieved that when I lost my Father a scant four years ago, we parted on very good terms. This is a powder keg of a film that manages to spill many tears & hidden truths about a father & son. The story, taken from the true accounts by writer Blake Morrison,is about the love/hate, love/love, hate/hate relationship Morrison shared with his own father, played to perfection by Jim Broadbent (of many a Mike Leigh film). Besides the well written/adapted screenplay,top notch direction & superb acting by the entire cast, I really admired the photography, utilizing light & dark & positioning as a framing device. The films's editing is a sight to behold, too (the way the action cuts back & forth in time over a period of 30 plus years). Hopefully, when Oscar time rolls around next year, 'When Did You Last See Your Father' will be a prime contender for at least a couple of awards.

"And When Did You Last See Your Father?" (2007) is an English film directed by Anand Tucker. It reminded me of the U.S. film, "The Savages," because the central plot of both movies involves a dying father who has not lived an exemplary life. Jim Broadbent is superb as Arthur, an obviously wealthy man who nevertheless goes through life cheating and manipulating people in small ways. He has a bluff, hearty, hail-fellow-well-met personality that charms people who meet him for the first time. In reality, he bullies his son and cheats on his wife. (Juliet Stevenson is excellent in the supporting role of wife and mother, as is Matthew Beard who plays Blake as a teenager.)

Colin Firth is equally convincing as Arthur's son, Blake. He's a successful award-winning writer, who nonetheless sees himself as perpetually in his father's shadow. Both men must come to grips with the situation when Arthur develops terminal cancer.

Broadbent and Firth look like each other, so it's easy to accept them as father and son. The film unfolds in an intelligent and interesting fashion. It's both artistically satisfying and philosophically challenging. I think the movie has been underrated by IMDb viewers. It's low key and thoughtful, but that's what it's supposed to be. There's nothing about it that struck me as artificially artistic. It's an honest and effective film, and worth seeking out and seeing.

My last recollection of my father was the look on his face after I placed him in a nursing home in Miami, Florida. Wracked by Parkinson's disease and heart trouble, I was saddened by how far removed he was from the authoritarian and emotionally distant man I feared when I was young, yet a lifetime of resentment could not be entirely forgotten. Indeed, in our society the pressure to love our fathers no matter how awful their behavior is so strong that it often leaves children deeply conflicted. Anand Tucker's And When Did You Last See Your Father? is a film about such conflict, though it does not question the underlying bond of love. Based on the autobiography by British writer Blake Morrison with a screenplay by David Nicholls, the film's title asks the question "when" but seeks an answer that requires more than a date. It asks for the last time in your life when you really saw your father, not as an authority figure but as a complete human being, the complex individual that you may have never seen before.

The film charts the relationship between Doctor Arthur Morrison (Jim Broadbent) and his son Blake (Colin Firth), a writer, over a period of thirty years. As his dad lies dying of cancer, Blake is reminded of their difficult relationship over the years. Using mirrors to suggest there are many different angles with which to view life, Tucker catches events in Blake's life that remain with him and threaten to keep the two apart at a moment when they clearly need each other. Through extensive flashbacks showing Blake as a child, teenager, and adult, the film allows us to understand how events, both small and large, took on mass as the years went by. It makes clear that while Arthur was a devoted father, he was not above being overbearing, deceitful and duplicitous, especially regarding his infidelities with Aunt Beattie (Sarah Lancashire), an open secret in the household, though one that his wife (Juliet Stevenson) came to accept. Stevenson is outstanding in her role of the suffering partner who tries to make up for her husband's aloofness by giving the children her unconditional love.

In flashbacks, we see the eight-year old Blake (Bradley Johnson) seeing his father flaunting the rules by waving his stethoscope to get to the front of a queue waiting to enter a sports event; the fifteen-year-old Blake (Matthew Beard) putting up with his father's whimsy during a camping trip that left them soaked but liberated by driving lessons on the beach, his annoyance when his father, who called him "fathead", walked in on his first sexual awakening with a live-in-maid (Elaine Cassidy). We see the adult Blake (Colin Firth) recalling how his father refused to acknowledge his award of a literary prize at a gala, and then had the tenacity to call writing poetry "not a real job".

And When Did You Last See Your Father is a lyrical tone poem that is marked by brilliant performances. An honest and unsentimental film, it brings dignity to the subject of family relationships and has a powerful conclusion that left much of the audience, including myself, in tears. The best performances are by Matthew Beard as the sensitive but self-righteous adolescent who is hard put to give his father the benefit of the doubt and by Jim Broadbent as the overbearing but loving father. As the final days play out, the quality of Broadbent's performance is such that, while we understand Blake's misgivings, we can still see Arthur as a complex individual with both flaws and virtues. Blake still longs for his father's acceptance and, as his father lay dying, asks him: "It would be good to talk at some point, wouldn't it?" Yet the answer, "What about?" underscores the superficial banter that replaces conversation in many households.