AND WHEN DID YOU LAST SEE YOUR FATHER?
AND WHEN DID YOU LAST SEE YOUR FATHER? |
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Returning to his father's death-bed, Blake has to confront the past and present, and reconcile with family conflict. Based on the memoir by Blake Morrison. | score 4 |
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| Cast Jim Broadbent, Colin Firth, Matthew Beard, Juliet Stevenson, Sarah Lancashire Director Anand Tucker Screenwriter David Nicholls Country UK Rating / Running Time M / 92 minutes Australian Release July 2008 Official Site (c) moviereview
2006-2008
ABN 72 775 390 361 |
If
you were hoping to find the kind of cheerfully sad yarn
Hollywood markets as ‘true-life’, you’d be
heading to the wrong cinema. Anand Tucker’s adaptation of
Blake Morrison’s memoir is based on fact – it says as
much in the opening scene - and r? is as far from duplicity as a narrative can be. And When Did You Last See Your Father? is no false-ending, upbeat tearjerker; it is simply downright heartbreaking. Two timelines inform each other as middle-aged Blake (Colin Firth) returns home to the deathbed of his father (Jim Broadbent). Growing up in the mid-1960’s, teenage Blake came to despise the reliably incorrigible Arthur, a rakish man who frequently undermined his son’s worth, perpetuated a lengthy affair with Aunt Beaty and could “talk his way in and out of anything. “It’s just a bit of fun,” he’d respond once boundaries were crossed, often too late. Given weeks to live, it’s time for a fearful Blake to reconcile with his father’s domestic treachery. Although events are of themselves quite ordinary, Tucker turns the unexceptional story into an exceptional film. Working from a muscular script by David Nicholls, he burdens events now and then with an unspoken weight, as if the future was somehow affecting the past. It’s an idea extended through mirrored imagery and eye-catching transitions as the drama moves from Blake’s adulthood to childhood and back again. Firth and Broadbent give vigorous performances while Matthew Beard as teenage Blake brings an unexpected energy to the film. Juliet Stevenson as Arthur’s resilient wife quietly shines. Tucker captures the irksome ticks and quirks of a difficult relationship with tremendous skill. And When Did You Last See Your Father? is a wonderful testimony to the messiness of life and death, and the unavoidable pain that comes of it all. Only a stony heart would be unmoved by this extremely heartfelt and thoroughly rewarding heartbreaker. Take lots of tissues. // COLIN FRASER |