When Did You Last See Your Father? (2008)
73 %
Reviews Counted: 80 Fresh: 58 Rotten:22 Average Rating: 6.6/10
Consensus:
Sensitive to a fault, Tucker's adaptation of the Morrison novel is nonetheless solidly scripted and well-acted; guard your heartstrings.
Runtime: 1 hr 32 mins
Theatrical Release: Jun 6, 2008 Limited
Box Office: $732,392
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
Pre-order it on DVD
Reviews
"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.
Comment
09/04/08
Frustratingly stagnant at times but ultimately a moving story about a dying father and the son who must come to terms with him.
08/29/08
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.
08/06/08
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.
08/01/08
Grief is difficult to portray without being morbid, and despite valiant efforts to follow in the footsteps of Big Fish, which swept us away with uplifting reminiscences and amusing anecdotes, this drama struggles to find its equilibrium.
07/25/08
Blake Morrison's pain is invasive and all-embracing as recounted in his book and repeated in this adaptation, which is a wake and a weep for a father lost to male failures of communication.
07/25/08
When Firth and Broadbent share screen time, it's very watchable. Despite their proximity in real-life ages, they're convincing as son and father.
07/23/08
Everything in Water Lilies is more guarded, more complex and far more interesting than it seems.
07/11/08
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
A small, beautifully acted piece adapted from the British poet Blake Morrison's memoir.
07/04/08
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
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