When Did You Last See Your Father?

Colin Firth gave such a seductive performance in Helen Hunt's directorial debut Then She Found Me. As the film's central love interest, Firth was neurotic, miserable, and needy, the single parent of two children not recovered from the rejection of his wife, and somehow, given all those encumbrances, he succeeded at being irresistible at the same time.

Colin Firth Can't Charm Life Into This One

So much so that I wanted to see Anand Tucker's When Did You Last See Your Father? knowing nothing about the film. Well, knowing that it was about a grown son making peace with his dying father. And that Colin Firth was that star. I was ready for a sad movie that would make me cry. Sometimes, that can be a pleasure.

I can't say that it's Firth, the actor, himself, who let me down, though honestly there is nothing much to like about him in this particular film. Blake Morrison is an award winning poet. He is married to a beautiful woman (Gina McKee) and father of two children of his own. Despite all this bounty, he's still angry.

Maybe it has something to do with all the anger, but Colin Firth is not only unlikeable as Blake, he's not even cute. The confident angry Blake has none of the helpless, adorable foppishness that spoke to Helen Hunt's soul. At one point, Blake's wife calls him out on his bad behavior: grief, she said, was no excuse to act like a complete a--hole. Which is exactly what he does.

Blake has nothing but contempt for his dying father (Jim Broadbent), who certainly was a bit of a cad, and continues to be annoying while lying on his death bed. Parents can have a knack, for grating on their kids, no doubt. In flashbacks, we learn that Arthur cheated on his wife (Juliet Stevenson) repeatedly, and he also makes his bookish teenage son go camping in the rain. Horrors. But the man is clearly no monster, just regrettably human.

The Curse of Flashbacks

Broadbent, another fine English thespian, has the unfortunate task of aging thirty years in the course of one movie. Three different actors play Blake, a boy (Bradley Johnson), a teen (Matthew Beard) and a grown man (the scowling Firth) while Broadbent remains Broadbent. It's too much for him to pull off.

Worse, however, is Anand's predilection for said flashbacks. Back and forth, and back and forth, and then back and forth, again, the film goes -- always in a dreamy state of reflective melancholy. Each flashback packs a significant moment: a bad memory of Blake with his father, another bad memory of Blake with his father, and then, a good memory with Blake's father. The heavy theme music swells to let you know when something momentous is being revealed.

The end, of course, is no surprise. This is no spoiler: Blake's father will die. He's got incurable cancer. But the dramatic question must be answered. Will these difficult two men come to an understanding before dear old Dad draws his last breath? If you are patient, have a strong stomach for melodrama, get off on lush images of the English countryside, that pivotal moment does come.

Starring: Jim Broadbent, Colin Firth, Juliet Stevenson, Matthew Beard, Tom Clear
Directed by: Anand Tucker
Produced by: Tessa Ross, Lizzie Francke, Kate Wilson (II)
Running Time: 1 hr. 32 min.
Release Date: June 6th, 2008 (limited)
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sexual content, thematic material and brief strong language.
Distributors: Sony Pictures Classics