Heartfelt Climax Makes Father Almost Lovable

Acclaimed 40-year-old author Blake Morrison’s (Colin Firth) father Arthur (Jim Broadbent) is dying. With only a few weeks left to the man, the son rushes to the family’s country home to be with his mother Kim (Juliet Stevenson) and younger sister Gillian (Claire Skinner) in this time of need. He’s also hoping that during one of Dad’s spotty moments of clarity the two of them can have a heart-to-heart conversation, questions from the past still vexing Blake over two decades later.

Jim Boradbent and Colin Firth in Sony Pictures Classics' When Did You Last See Your Father?

Being home has a whirlwind effect on the man. Vivid recollections of his years growing up in the house, going on family holidays, falling in first-love with their vivacious maid Sandra (Elaine Cassidy) and coming to appreciate the vivid wonders of world literature come flooding back. But it is the time spent with his father that most haunts Blake, secrets and lies he’s never fully understood keeping him from being the husband and father his own young family desperately hopes he’ll be.

The unfortunately titled When Did You Last See Your Father? should be a much better movie than it actually is. Not that it’s bad, at times far from it, it’s just not as engaging and as moving as it desperately wants to be. It is, in fact, kind of annoying, director Anand Tucker (Shopgirl) messing around behind the camera so frequently and beating some of the melodrama over our heads to incessantly I admit I kind of couldn’t wait for the darn thing to end.

Pity, because there are some mighty fine scenes to be found in this little familial saga of forgiveness, regret and redemption. Old pros Broadbent and Stevenson have a field day with some of this stuff, early scenes of the family sneaking into sports stadiums or having quietly moving conversations at the bedside good enough I didn’t want to see them end. The film is also a magnificent showcase for bright new star Matthew Beard, the young man playing Blake as a teenager and doing just perfectly delightful job doing so.

If only older Blake were half as interesting. I found the guy to be something of an annoyingly whiny brat who just couldn’t stop feeling sorry for himself no matter how much doing affected all those around him. Firth is a great actor (and will always be the quintessential Mr. Darcy, thank you very much) but he’s just treading water here. He makes the writer a coldly bedraggled sod of a man who I could have cared less about, and sometime around the two thirds mark I really kind of wanted to just be done with him.

Still, I like Tucker is going for here at times. His work bringing David Nichols’ Starter for 10) screenplay, based on the acclaimed novel by the real life Morrison, to life at times borders on the magnificent. Blake’s first kiss, the look of hurtful longing on a young child’s face when he learns a thing he shouldn’t have, the delicate caress of a loved one’s fingers running through your hair in a time of brutal emotional need, certain scenes here and there have a potent majesty going beyond the simply familiar dramatics inherent within the storyline.

On the flipside, however, as grand as some of these moments are they director has an unfortunate knack for repeating himself almost to the point of parody at times. There are so many reflection and mirror shots in the film they almost started giving me a headache, while the man’s pacing skills haven’t matured a lick since his 1998 feature length debut Hilary and Jackie. He also tends to layer on composer Barrington Pheloung’s (Nostradamus) pretty if overbearing score a little bit thick, saturating the film with it to the point it almost needs a respirator in order to get some oxygen.

All of this considered, the picture’s penultimate moment is almost enough to make me take every single one of my criticisms back and give Tucker’s feature a pass. There came a moment where I felt a single tear trickle down my cheeks. Seconds later, a few more joined it on its downward trajectory. A couple more and I was suddenly digging into my bag furiously for tissue.  

With a subtle suddenness unlike anything else in the picture the director moved me and got me to think about many of the themes and ideas floating inside his narrative. If only for a moment, all of the film’s problems disappeared and all I was left with was the heartfelt emotion sitting within its core. None of which makes When Did You Last See Your Father? a success, but it does make it somewhat worthwhile. I guess that’s something. 

Film Rating: êê1/2  (out of 4)

Additional Links:

-  2008 SIFF Blog by Sara Michelle Fetters
-  2008 Seattle International Film Festival Home Page
-  When Did You Last See Your Father? Theatrical Trailer