And When Did You Last See Your Father? is Blake Morrison's moving and candid memoir of his father in the weeks leading up to his death. When Arthur Morrison was diagnosed with terminal cancer he had only a few weeks left to live. Morrison traveled to Yorkshire to stay with his mother in the village where he grew up. He visited his father at the hospital where he had spent so much time with his own patients as a GP. As his father's condition worsened Morrison contemplated their shared experiences, the intimacies and the irritations of their relationship. After his father's death Morrison questions the nature of the bond between them, articulately expressing the contradictions, frustrations, love and loss bound into the complicated relationships which most of us have with our parents as we grow up.
Genre(s): Biography, Drama
Runtime: 92 minutes
Rating: 6.9/10 (1,427 votes)
Release Date: 12 July 2007
Country: UK, Ireland
Languages: English
Company: Archer Street Productions
Sound: Dolby Digital
MPAA: Rated PG-13 for sexual content, thematic material and brief strong language.
Director(s): Anand Tucker
Producer(s):
Laurie Borg – co-producer
Lizzie Francke – executive producer
Elizabeth Karlsen – producer
Tessa Ross – executive producer
Gary Smith – executive producer
Paul White – executive producer
Stephen Woolley – producer
Writer(s):
Blake Morrison – (book)
David Nicholls – screenplay
Cast:
Jim Broadbent – Arthur
Colin Firth – Blake
Juliet Stevenson – Kim
Gina McKee – Kathy
Sarah Lancashire – Beaty
Elaine Cassidy – Sandra
Claire Skinner – Gillian
Matthew Beard – Blake – Teen
Bradley Johnson – Blake – Child
Chris Middleton – Racing Steward
Music: Barrington Pheloung
Tagline: 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.
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Very touching. Sweet and sad. Very intelligently put together -capturing complexity of a relationship with a father. Left meconsidering my own relationship with my father. Colin Firth carried hischaracter very well. Mathew Beard did an excellent part in capturingthe awkwardness of dealing with a father during adolescence. I likeseeing the arc of the story captured through the flashbacks. It waslike peeling an onion as we started to understand who the father -Arthur – really was s a person. The father was well played by JimBroadbent. The character was really brought to life. I wonder if thebook it was based upon goes into more details about the relationshipwith the sister and the mother by the son. These were only slightlyalluded to but enough to give the viewer the sense of tension thatexists in those relationships as well.
_And When Did You Last See Your Father_ is mainly a story about a son'sfeelings toward his father, supposedly a true story. Stripping away allthe extraneous plot elements, the big question for the son becomes thecheating issue. When his father dies, he confronts one of the womenwith whom the father might have had a continuing affair, asking iftheir relationship became physical. She says that that question needsto remain unanswered out of respect for the deceased and herself. ColinFirth, playing the son, acts as if this is an impossible situation forhim, not knowing. Dr. Phil would tell him to stop whining and get onwith his life. This movie, in my opinion, is just a write-up of thewhine so as to cash in on its commercial value. I don't think directorMike Leigh would have accepted any amount of money to dignify thatstory line with a movie, but if he had done so, he would have given usa movie far, far better than this one. — Aloha ~~~ Ozzie Maland ~~~San Diego
At its simplest this movie is about the love between two men – a fatherand son – that in spite of a deep desire to connect, cannot be sharedbetween the two. At least not in life. And not until it is too late.Sadly, it is a story that is all too prevalent in our society.
The film reflects this theme again and again with flashbacks of theson's experiences growing up with the father. Of course this is theson's world view and the film does not cover the father's perspectiveof events. So the question remains unanswered – was there truly nopoint of contact for the love between the two, or was the son blind to,or incapable of, receiving the love of the father?
Well worth the investment of 92 minutes of your time.
My last recollection of my father was the look on his face after Iplaced him in a nursing home in Miami, Florida. Wracked by Parkinson'sdisease and heart trouble, I was saddened by how far removed he wasfrom the authoritarian and emotionally distant man I feared when I wasyoung, yet a lifetime of resentment could not be entirely forgotten.Indeed, in our society the pressure to love our fathers no matter howawful their behavior is so strong that it often leaves children deeplyconflicted. Anand Tucker's And When Did You Last See Your Father? is afilm about such conflict, though it does not question the underlyingbond of love. Based on the autobiography by British writer BlakeMorrison with a screenplay by David Nicholls, the film's title asks thequestion "when" but seeks an answer that requires more than a date. Itasks for the last time in your life when you really saw your father,not as an authority figure but as a complete human being, the complexindividual that you may have never seen before.
The film charts the relationship between Doctor Arthur Morrison (JimBroadbent) and his son Blake (Colin Firth), a writer, over a period ofthirty years. As his dad lies dying of cancer, Blake is reminded oftheir difficult relationship over the years. Using mirrors to suggestthere are many different angles with which to view life, Tucker catchesevents in Blake's life that remain with him and threaten to keep thetwo apart at a moment when they clearly need each other. Throughextensive flashbacks showing Blake as a child, teenager, and adult, thefilm allows us to understand how events, both small and large, took onmass as the years went by. It makes clear that while Arthur was adevoted father, he was not above being overbearing, deceitful andduplicitous, especially regarding his infidelities with Aunt Beattie(Sarah Lancashire), an open secret in the household, though one thathis wife (Juliet Stevenson) came to accept. Stevenson is outstanding inher role of the suffering partner who tries to make up for herhusband's aloofness by giving the children her unconditional love.
In flashbacks, we see the eight-year old Blake (Bradley Johnson) seeinghis father flaunting the rules by waving his stethoscope to get to thefront of a queue waiting to enter a sports event; the fifteen-year-oldBlake (Matthew Beard) putting up with his father's whimsy during acamping trip that left them soaked but liberated by driving lessons onthe beach, his annoyance when his father, who called him "fathead",walked in on his first sexual awakening with a live-in-maid (ElaineCassidy). We see the adult Blake (Colin Firth) recalling how his fatherrefused to acknowledge his award of a literary prize at a gala, andthen had the tenacity to call writing poetry "not a real job".
And When Did You Last See Your Father is a lyrical tone poem that ismarked by brilliant performances. An honest and unsentimental film, itbrings dignity to the subject of family relationships and has apowerful conclusion that left much of the audience, including myself,in tears. The best performances are by Matthew Beard as the sensitivebut self-righteous adolescent who is hard put to give his father thebenefit of the doubt and by Jim Broadbent as the overbearing but lovingfather. As the final days play out, the quality of Broadbent'sperformance is such that, while we understand Blake's misgivings, wecan still see Arthur as a complex individual with both flaws andvirtues. Blake still longs for his father's acceptance and, as hisfather lay dying, asks him: "It would be good to talk at some point,wouldn't it?" Yet the answer, "What about?" underscores the superficialbanter that replaces conversation in many households.