And When Did You Last See Your Father? (When Did You Last See Your Father?) poster & wallpaper

Carey Mulligan, Claire Skinner, Colin Firth

Blake Morrison deals with his father Arthur's terminal illness and imminent death. Blake's memories of everything funny, embarrassing and upsetting about his childhood and teens are interspersed with ...( read more  read more... )the present, as he struggles to come to terms with his father, and their history of conflict, and learns to accept that one's parents are not always accountable to their children.

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62% liked it

38,341 ratings

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73% liked it

91 critics

PG-13, 1 hr. 32 min.

Directed by: Anand Tucker

Release Date: June 6, 2008

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DVD Release Date: November 4, 2008

Stats: 609 reviews

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Elaine Cassidy in When Did You Last See Your Father? Elaine Cassidy and Jim Broadbent When Did You Last Your Father? And When Did You Last See Your Father? (When Did You Last See Your Father?) And When Did You Last See Your Father? (When Did You Last See Your Father?) And When Did You Last See Your Father? (When Did You Last See Your Father?) And When Did You Last See Your Father? (When Did You Last See Your Father?)
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Flixster Reviews (609)

  • SirPant
    October 1, 2009
    SirPant
    A very moving film. Its well acted (Broadbent in particular), beautifully directed and well scripted. Its only real major downfall, is its structure and editing. Its full of unnecessary scenes and it does milk it a bit. I also had nightmares after about Colin Firth abusing himsel...( read more)f in the bath! That said, the scene at the end where father and son embrace was an amazing piece of cinema and worth seeing the film for alone! It just could and should have been a lot better (I did really like it though)
  • mrpopcorn
    December 5, 2008
    mrpopcorn
    "A parent and a child. The past and the present. Memories and secrets. Can you know someone for a lifetime.... and not know them at all? The life of a father. Through the journey of a son."

    As poet Blake Morrison (Colin Firth) visits his dying father (Jim Broadbent), he...( read more) remembers the feeling of being overshadowed by his gregarious dad. Blake's conflicted memories roam back and forth through the 1950s, the '60s and then the late '80s , the last in which Blake is a married man with a career of his own.

    Review
    Blake Morrison's memories are served for public consumption in a respectful but slightly confused rendition. Jim Broadbent delight us, once more, with his overgrown child of a father that seems a figment of her son's imagination. His childishness seems to be his only flaw. I couldn't help but being reminded of Tim Burton's "Big Fish" this time, with radically different flights of fancy. Colin Firth plays the writer/son as a crashing bore. Was that on purpose? I've been longing to see Firth again in parts like the ones he so amazingly captured - "Apartment Zero" comes to mind. Here earnest or not earnest, loving, selfish and so forth I didn't quite get myself interested enough to care as much as I feel I should have. Matthew Beard, the younger Blake and Juliet Stevens as the mother, manage to create more intriguing characters. The film, however, belongs to Jim Broadbent - His character is a loving mix of assorted British loving eccentrics. The fact that this is the way her son Blakes remembers him, makes the experience worth while.
  • EarthlyAlien
    November 10, 2008
    EarthlyAlien
    "It's stupid, really, you spend a lifetime trying to avoid talking to someone, and then all of a sudden, it's too late."

    ...( read more)ket.com/albums/w25/EarthlyAlien/2007_09_04_father.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket">

    The past few decades, thanks to inventions like TV and in more recent times computers and iPods, have witnessed a deterioration in our relationships with our parents. Families rarely dine together anymore. And when they do, they may watch the tube while zapping fast food packages, then retreat to their separate rooms to do their separate activities. In other words, kids and their parents do not talk. Occasionally a wise man or woman will advise callow youths: "Get closer to your father now, because you never know when he will pass from the scene."

    Using his gift as a writer, one Blake Morrison wrote a best-selling memoir in 1993 of his failure to communicate with his dad. Now a film, directed by the Thai-born, British director Anand Tucker, who appears to specialize in directing book adaptations (Hilary and Jackie, which dealt with the renowned cellist Jacqueline du Pré, and Steve Martin's Shopgirl), emerges, featuring Morrison's observations of his dad, Arthur Morrison (Jim Broadbent) when Blake was a small boy in the 1950s (played by Bradley Johnson), a hormone-addled teen (Matthew Beard), and a present-day writer-poet (Colin Firth).

    The long title is recited in a voice-over by the adult Blake: "And when did you last see your father? Was it last weekend or last Christmas? Was it before or after he exhaled his last breath? And was it him really, or was it a version of him, shaped by your own expectations and disappointments?" We seem never to know our fathers as they are to themselves: only the way we interpret them through our own eyes. The film, like the book, deals with one dad's life and death, a man who some would call charismatic but most viewers would probably agree is outgoing at best, aggressively intrusive and compulsively flirtatious at worst. He is a domineering man when in the full glory of his health, but highly vulnerable when he is afflicted with terminal cancer, dependent on the assistance of his son and wife, Kim (Juliet Stevenson).

    This is the sort of tearjerker which, like films about romance, would find father and son on different wavelengths for the bulk of the story only to get together in mutually expressed love at the conclusion. However, Blake at no point truly bonds with the man, the father apparently covering up the love he feels for his wife and boy by his over-the-top, boisterous behaviour - his regular interference with his teen's life that finds young Blake and his sexual partner at the time, au-pair Sandra (Elaine Cassidy) dubbing him the sex police. "You'll go blind if you continue," warns Dr. Arthur Morrison, barging into his son's room without knocking, suspecting correctly the boy was not exactly reading at the time. In another scene, Arthur ruins Blake's attempts to hit on Rachel (Carey Mulligan), whom he meets on vacation only to find that the girl is more interested in Arthur.

    Despite the hinted womanising, live-wire Arthur remains the most likeable character in the film. We see him through a collection of episodes as Tucker flips backward and forward to key events in Blake's life. These events include one humorous instalment wherein Arthur and teen Blake are camping out, finding themselves knee-deep in water from a nearby stream when they awaken. Somehow a lively, inquisitive Blake morphs into a glum adult who shows genuine joie-de-vivre with his wife, Kathy (Gina McKee) but who remains with mixed feelings about his father. Yet he's unhesitating about performing some unpleasant services, together with his mother, in caring for the terminally ill man at home.

    As Blake, Colin Firth is quietly brilliant, conveying the contradictions of being a fully-grown son; angry at fate, desperate for closure, fully capable of making all the mistakes he saw his father make. Firth's manner in every film suggests a constant struggle between weakness and strength; he lets us see a hint of rot beneath his firmness, or suggests a core of steel behind his hesitancy. As the adult Blake, Firth gives complexity and humanity to what could have been a simple and surface performance in the hands of another actor. But as good as Firth is, Beard (making his feature film debut) is as good, or even better. He manages to show the myriad tones within father-son interaction with strong-but-never-showy acting - the exasperation, the frustration, the moments of shock when you can't quite believe you're enjoying the old man's company.

    Then there's the great Jim Broadbent who, as the old man, is as good as he's ever been in his long career. Playing Arthur requires Broadbent to portray bold affability in the '50s and cancer-ravaged agonies in the late '80s. But Arthur's neither saintly in his whispered dying nor all bad in his vulgar life; Broadbent somehow brings sadness to Arthur's hearty humour and a sense of power to his bedridden final days. The supporting cast is excellent - including Gina McKee as Blake's wife and Juliet Stevenson as Arthur's wife - but Firth, Beard and Broadbent carry the film.

    As a director, Tucker may have a few weaknesses - there's a few too many moments where the characters are captured in mirror-reflections - but he at the very least knows how to get performances out of his cast, and how to get good-looking scenes out of his crew. And the plot and themes of And When Did You Last See Your Father? may be simple, but that doesn't mean they're easy - especially as Blake's quest to understand his father's sins leads him to commit them. Tucker has a subtle yet effective capacity for keeping us focused where another film would look away, for leaving things unspoken that another film would spell out for us. And When Did You Last See Your Father? manages - in graceful and bleak ways, in unblinking yet sympathetic depictions of family life - to take an all-too-familiar plot and still find something fresh in it through skilful and well-crafted execution.
  • wbgoose13
    July 25, 2008
    wbgoose13
    At the risk of becoming maudlin, the performances of Broadbent, Firth, & Beard tap into the greater emotional frustration between fathers and sons.
  • patrickdol
    August 7, 2008
    patrickdol
    Actually a very good film.
    It's simply a study of a father and son relationship, and it very effective.
    There are some part that are overly dramatic, but it still holds up.
  • Ghw12158
    November 10, 2009
    Ghw12158
    good amazing cast though it still felt like a british made for TV movie
  • FlyingSolo2009
    July 23, 2009
    FlyingSolo2009
    This redemption story is overused for movie plots. The only reason to sit through this tearjerker is Colin Firth. Still dreamy!
  • mikexpress1
    June 23, 2009
    mikexpress1
    A fresh look at unspoken family dynamics. Coincidentally appropriate for Father's Day.
  • cookiesndough13
    June 21, 2009
    cookiesndough13
    not sure whether i want to see it or not
  • Twilightfan175
    June 21, 2009
    Twilightfan175
    Beautiful, heartfelt and very moving. Perfect casting as well.

View All And When Did You Last See Your Father? (When Did You Last See Your Father?) Reviews

Critic Reviews

October 1, 2008
Pete Hammond, Hollywood.com

A small, intimate film with numerous flashbacks like this one is trickier than it looks, but ultimately it touches the heart and proves a worthwhile journey perfectly timed for Father's Day. full review

July 11, 2008
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

Everything in Water Lilies is more guarded, more complex and far more interesting than it seems. full review

July 4, 2008
Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer

A small, beautifully acted piece adapted from the British poet Blake Morrison's memoir. full review

June 13, 2008
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

This is a film of regret, and judging by what we see of the characters, it deserves to be. full review

June 6, 2008
Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal

When Did You Last See Your Father? is an eloquent and affecting evocation of a man who remains bigger than life even as he approaches death. full review

June 6, 2008
Claudia Puig, USA Today

The film is not only poignant, but nuanced, never offering pat answers, predictable revelations or easy sentimentality. full review

June 6, 2008
Kyle Smith, New York Post

'Pretty good, for a movie about death' isn't really good enough. full review

June 1, 2008
Nick Schager, Slant Magazine

A low-key Big Fish minus the whimsical fantasy. full review

October 5, 2007
Nigel Andrews, The Financial Times

The film is sweet, simplified and a bit syrupy on the soundtrack. full review

View more And When Did You Last See Your Father? (When Did You Last See Your Father?) reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

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