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WHEN DID YOU LAST SEE YOUR FATHER? Send This Review to a Friend
Father-son issues are dramatized to the hilt in this beautifully-acted exploration of the relationship between a son who hasn’t been able to stand his dad, and the father, who it turns out, is dying. Coming to grips with these emotions and realizing that for all his clumsiness toward his son, the father is a man who really loves him, is at the core of this finely told drama.
The acting is key in “When Did You Last See Your Father?” With Colin Firth as the son, Jim Broadbent as the dad and Juliet Stevenson as the wife and mother, superb, wonderful performers are at work. The subtle screenplay by David Nichols based on Blake Morrison’s novel and the always sensitive direction by Anand Tucker help give the film its sense of integrity. Emotions are tapped, but never in a cheap, easy way. Feelings that the film arouse come from its honesty.
As acted by Broadbent, Arthur, the father, is a blowhard who lacks enough sensitivity to realize that when he goes through life criticizing Blake, his son, he is wounding the boy. What is humor to dad is belittlingly humiliating to Blake. The same pattern carries over into adult life. Blake also becomes troubled by the relationship he suspects his dad has had with another woman.
The challenge for Blake is to understand what his father is really like as a total being, and to recognize that love and affection can be covered up because a man doesn’t know how to express inner feelings in a proper way. Broadbent’s portrayal of this sort of a character is brilliant.
In the story, which takes place in the Yorkshire area of England, both Arthur and his wife, Kim (Stevenson) are doctors. Blake has become a well known author, and life takes a sad turn with the news that Arthur is terminally ill. The structure of the film becomes a mix of the painful scenes of Arthur wasting away and memory scenes depicting the past.
Blake must finally be able to come to terms with his feelings toward his father and gain understanding of the man as death intervenes. A Sony Pictures Classics release.
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