And When Did You Last See Your Father? (When Did You Last See Your Father?) (2007)

72% of critics liked it
(96 reviews)
61% of users liked it
(41,227 ratings)

Adapted from poet Blake Morrison's best-selling memoir by screenwriter David Nicholls and directed for the screen by Anand Tucker, And When Did You Last See Your Father? explores -- like its source material -- the complex, manifold emotional layers of a father-and-son relationship as it shifts and… More Adapted from poet Blake Morrison's best-selling memoir by screenwriter David Nicholls and directed for the screen by Anand Tucker, And When Did You Last See Your Father? explores -- like its source material -- the complex, manifold emotional layers of a father-and-son relationship as it shifts and evolves over the passing decades. At the film's center is Blake Morrison himself, who for as long as he can remember has lived in the overarching shadow of his physician father, Arthur (Jim Broadbent) -- falling prey to feelings of embarrassment from the old man, as well as occasional awe. In the 1950s, when Blake (Bradley Johnson) was a child, the boy watched as Arthur partook in socially uncouth behavior such as wheedling his way into clubs to which he didn't belong, and carrying on an extramarital affair with the full knowledge of his wife, Kim (Juliet Stevenson). As the years passed, teenage Blake's (Matthew Beard) discomfort around his father hardened into resentment -- particularly when the adolescent boy expressed interest in a girl, Rachel (Carey Mulligan), who clearly preferred his father; compounding the situation, Blake then had to suffer through Arthur's decision to publicly humiliate his son in front of everyone. The central dynamic has changed for the two, however, by the late '80s, when Blake -- now married to Kathy (Gina McKee) and freshly established as a successful novelist and poet -- learns that Arthur has contracted terminal cancer. Now, the junior Morrison takes a headfirst plunge into the memories and recollections of his youth -- and grapples with the dynamic of his relationship with Arthur for the first time in his life as he comes face to face with the need to provide loving care for the old man. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: PG-13, 1 hr. 33 min.
Directed By: Anand Tucker
Written By: David Nicholls
Genres: Drama

In Theaters: Jun 6, 2008 Wide
On DVD: Nov 4, 2008
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics

Critic Reviews

Susan Walker, Toronto Star
The winning aspect of this adaptation of a best-selling autobiography is in the director's management of the points of view.
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
Everything in Water Lilies is more guarded, more complex and far more interesting than it seems.
Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer
A small, beautifully acted piece adapted from the British poet Blake Morrison's memoir.
Stanley Kauffmann, New Republic
What ensures our pleasure is the dialogue, which is supple, and the quality of the acting.
Christy DeSmith, Minneapolis Star Tribune
It can be painful to watch as it so painstakingly captures the slow process of loss. But it's worth every last teardrop.
Stephen Hunter, Washington Post
The movie is slick and treacly and goes nowhere that hasn't been gone before.
David Cornelius, DVDTalk.com
A bore of a memoir.
Prairie Miller, NewsBlaze
A keen and candid subjective scrutiny of parenting through the eyes of a damaged offspring, but a relentlessly grim, insular perspective that rarely ventures outside those long festering psychological wounds.
Prairie Miller, NewsBlaze
A keen and candid subjective scrutiny of parenting through the eyes of a damaged offspring, but a relentlessly grim, insular perspective that rarely ventures outside those long festering psychological wounds.
Marjorie Baumgarten, Austin Chronicle
The performances are marvelous, and little moments ring all too true, making Tucker's film rewarding if not illuminating.
Jim Slotek, Jam! Movies
It's Broadbent's movie, and he really does go from one-foot-in-the-grave to youthful and crackling-with-charisma on a dime. It's not so much that he does it, but that it seems so effortless and non-ostentatious.
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.
Philip Martin, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
...a movie that would probably be better off as a poem.
Rob Thomas, Capital Times (Madison, WI)
"Father" handles things with grace, wit and a healthy dose of authenticity, staying true to author Blake Morrison's clear-eyed memoir of the same name.
Connie Ogle, Miami Herald
Frustratingly stagnant at times but ultimately a moving story about a dying father and the son who must come to terms with him.
Ken Hanke, Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)
The film puts forth the idea that the best we ever get are reflections and fragmented images of others, as if we see things entirely through prisms or distorting glass.
Sandra Hall, Sydney Morning Herald
Firth gives one of his most stitched-up performances as the adult Blake. Maybe he overdoes it but I don't think so. His aloofness, with its awkward hesitancies and ragged bursts of feeling, means that it's all the more moving when he finally lets go.

Read all 17 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Leigh R

It's hard to come to terms with seeing your parents as they are as human beings instead of parents. Then having to deal with losing one of them forever at the same time. Well acted...
Anthony L

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 himself in… More
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 himself 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)
Lorenzo v

"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… More
"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 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.
Jennifer X

The whole father-dying-and-son-not-able-to-forgive-father's-past-infidelities thing has been milked past all recognition for the last few years, and I originally dismissed this movie as another sub-par derivative that probably stemmed from Tim Burton's Big Fish (possibly… More
The whole father-dying-and-son-not-able-to-forgive-father's-past-infidelities thing has been milked past all recognition for the last few years, and I originally dismissed this movie as another sub-par derivative that probably stemmed from Tim Burton's Big Fish (possibly earlier, but I'm not that well-informed) in 2003. But it was weird how this movie affected me. Writers tend to focus on this topic because it's something we all go through - we all have issues with our parents and we think it's going to end sometime and eventually everybody will be friends but all of a sudden it is too late and your dad's dead and you're still harboring all this ill will with no outlet to let it go. And I guess it's like how everybody likes to focus on the coming-of-age story even though it's been overdone and very rarely is a "spin" done on it nowadays because even the permutations have been exhausted. But still filmmakers keep on churning them out and they're not bad at all. This is a different kind of coming-of-age where the author has matured already but there's that one arrested development inherent in parental relationships that still makes them a child. It's funny but the scenes that resonated with me most were among the most cliched - the ash scattering almost jubilant in nature, the tight tear-filled hug upon the son's graduation, the drive around the sand with the opera (naturally, it's got to be opera, right?) swirling all around your ears. The movie was only like 90 minutes long but sometimes it felt like three hours, but that didn't necessarily make it bad...just slow. I like the British feel of it, the little humorisms and outfits and way of walking, it made me feel like I was inside a foreign film without the subtitles. And it had heart, because it was about a subject probably very near and dear to the author. I can identify and I think the time period of my life I was going through amplified the affect the movie gave me. Uneven, long, but definitely resonant.
Walter M

"When Did You Last See Your Father?" is a thoughtful, yet insubstantial, movie about why we should always appreciate our parents and never take them for granted, especially before it is too late. Case in point: Blake Morrison(Colin Firth), a poet, whose father Arthur(Jim… More
"When Did You Last See Your Father?" is a thoughtful, yet insubstantial, movie about why we should always appreciate our parents and never take them for granted, especially before it is too late. Case in point: Blake Morrison(Colin Firth), a poet, whose father Arthur(Jim Brodbent), a doctor, even embarrasses him as an adult, chatting up Salman Rushdie at an awards banquet(Wait a sec. Wasn't Rushdie in hiding in 1989? And that cell phone is all wrong for the year.) and wondering aloud if his son could not have found a more practical profession. However, naming him Blake pretty much guaranteed this.(Or he could have ended up a film director or a freedom fighter, I suppose.) Things take a serious turn when Arthur is diagnosed with cancer and given little time left, forcing Blake to recall what life was like when he was a teenager(Matthew Beard), blaming his lack of sexual activity on his father, turning the cliched father-son relationship on its head which has a tendency to be generational in popular fiction. In fact, Blake's reseveredness bordered on downright uptightness(and accompanying literary snobbishness) conflicts mightily with Arthur's outgoing demeanor which allowed him to enjoy adventures, so he could have stories to tell at the dinner table. At the end, I am left wondering what kind of father Blake turned out to be.
Mark A

An emotional journey by a man's grown son (Colin Firth), watching as his father (Jim Broadbent) dies. The tale recounts several moments in the difficult relationship through the son's formative years. There was a definite connection with "Big Fish" in that both… More
An emotional journey by a man's grown son (Colin Firth), watching as his father (Jim Broadbent) dies. The tale recounts several moments in the difficult relationship through the son's formative years. There was a definite connection with "Big Fish" in that both deal with the father/son relationship at the end of the father's life. The relationship here was complicated by the father's propensity to chat up the ladies and the son's insecurities. The honesty came through quite clearly. Fine acting, including Juliet Stevenson as the longsuffering wife and mother. Some beautiful views of the English countryside. Quite well done and this viewer was able to connect on a deep level to the film as one who lost his father more than a decade ago. It still hurts.
Panta O

[b][size=5]When Did You Last See Your Father? (2008)[/size][/b] [img]http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/movie/custom/06/1187306.jpg[/img] [color=indigo][b][i]Drama koja uspe da izvuèe suzu i od najtvrdokornijih gledalaca... verujte mi na reè! Engleski glumci Jim Broadbent i… More
[b][size=5]When Did You Last See Your Father? (2008)[/size][/b] [img]http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/movie/custom/06/1187306.jpg[/img] [color=indigo][b][i]Drama koja uspe da izvuèe suzu i od najtvrdokornijih gledalaca... verujte mi na reè! Engleski glumci Jim Broadbent i Colin Firth su u glavnim ulogama kao otac i sin u ulogama koje slede autobiografsku dramu pisca Blake Morrisona. [img]http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/movie/gallery/1187306/photo_19_hires.jpg[/img] Dogaðaji se prebacuju izmeðu 1950 i 1980 godine i u njima se upoznajemo sa dobrim i lošim dogaðajima u odnosu izmeðu oca i sina... Potresna prièa u kojoj saznajemo da otac umire od raka... svi su oèarani ovim èovekom... svi osim sina... do trenutka kada otac polako poèinje da bledi i nestaje... kada se sve menja! [img]http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/movie/gallery/1187306/photo_18_hires.jpg[/img] Oseæanja se bude, sasvim novi odnos se raða... a za sve ostalo: pogledajte film! Pokraj Colin Firth'a i Jim Broadbent'a u filmu su izuzetne uloge imale i Juliet Stevenson, Gina McKee i Claire Skinner. Režija Anand Tucker'a je bila veoma korektno uraðena i meni se posebno sviðalo što se ta korektnost jednostavno nije primeæivala: sve je izgledalo kao da se stvarno dogaða pred vama... realizam je najteže postiæi, a ovom režiseru je to uspelo bez problema! [img]http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/movie/gallery/1187306/photo_17_hires.jpg[/img] Što se tièe ocene, ovoga puta 7-10! [/i][/b][/color]
William G

At the risk of becoming maudlin, the performances of Broadbent, Firth, & Beard tap into the greater emotional frustration between fathers and sons.
hawk l

Great sentiment and great restraint in examining the generational fractures that prevent parent and child from saying what they mean in the earthly time available, while recognizing that people are often shortchanged on that front. Jim Broadbent shines. Powerful universality.
Patrick D

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.