Everything in Water Lilies is more guarded, more complex and far more interesting than it seems.
Comment
07/11/08
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When Did You Last See Your Father? (2008)
74 %
Reviews Counted: 72 Fresh: 53 Rotten:19 Average Rating: 6.7/10
Consensus:
Sensitive to a fault, Tucker's adaptation of the Morrison novel is nonetheless solidly scripted and well-acted; guard your heartstrings.
Rated: PG-13 [See Full Rating]
Runtime: 1 hr 32 mins
Theatrical Release: Jun 6, 2008 Limited
Box Office: $630,314
Synopsis: Celebrated English actors Jim Broadbent and Colin Firth team up for this moving drama about a father and son. Based on Blake Morrison's autobiographical novel, WHEN DID YOU LAST SEE YOUR FATHER? bounces between the 1950s and the 1980s as Blake (Firth, BRIDGET JONES' DIARY) remembers all the... [More]
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Colin Firth, Jim Broadbent, Juliet Stevenson, Gina McKee, Claire Skinner
Director: Anand Tucker
Screenwriter: David Nicholls
Producer: Elizabeth Karlsen, Stephen Woolley
Composer: Barrington Pheloung
Screenwriter: David Nicholls
Producer: Elizabeth Karlsen, Stephen Woolley
Composer: Barrington Pheloung
Reviews
Top Critic
In this delicate and understated portrait of selective reminiscence by Shopgirl director Anand Tucker, the now-grown son, played by Colin Firth, returns to the scene of the crime that was his childhood.
07/11/08
When Did You Last See Your Father? is based on a true story, but it still feels contrived.
07/11/08
Though ... well-acted by Firth, Broadbent and Juliet Stevenson, the slow pacing makes it feel as if everyone is walking through a waist-deep bog of emotional reserve.
07/10/08
The author comes off as such a constipated, self-pitying heel, it's no wonder his old man used to give him such a hard time!
07/06/08
An unfocused, agonized tear-jerker about loss and mourning but some of the performances are excellent.
07/06/08
Top Critic
The film is directed and lensed with such subtlety and old-fashioned restraint that you might overlook the exquisite cinematic flourishes throughout.
07/01/08
What ensures our pleasure is the dialogue, which is supple, and the quality of the acting.
06/29/08
Top Critic
The film winds up with some meaningful things to say about balancing the desire to clear the familial air and the need to let some things be, but never gets deep enough into its character's psyches to dig up anything more revelatory than that.
06/27/08
Strong performances carry this familiar but always intelligent British rites-of-passage story about a philandering doctor and his much-mocked son.
06/27/08
Smartly, Father never ties up all its loose ends, but along the way, it is blessed with dozens of scenes in which a couple of actors connect in ways that feel deeply, humanly real.
06/27/08
When it comes down to it, the story of a son who needs validation and his dying father is utterly predictable.
06/26/08
It can be painful to watch as it so painstakingly captures the slow process of loss. But it's worth every last teardrop.
06/26/08
Top Critic
The movie is slick and treacly and goes nowhere that hasn't been gone before.
06/26/08
Top Critic
A haunting and heartfelt drama that may startle some viewers with sporadic shocks of recognition.
06/20/08
Top Critic
The acting is superior in a rather spotty story. Jim Broadbent is a consummate actor who finds the pinpricks in a dry script and sharpens them to magnify Arthur's negative characteristics.
06/19/08
Amounts to a glorified Hallmark Hall of Fame special, except with British accents.
06/14/08
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