I never had one, never experienced what is it to have a dad camping, the longing is still there, but i can relate to him not totally hating the father, when he knows he cheated on his mom, maybe its becoz they are our father that we just forgave them... the film is greatly acted, colin firth jim broadbent is remarkable as the father, matthew beard is effective too
"It's stupid, really, you spend a lifetime trying to avoid talking to someone, and then all of a sudden, it's too late."
The past few decades, thanks to inventions like TV and in more recent times computers and iPods, have witnessed a deterioration in our relationships with our parents. Families rarely dine together anymore. And when they do, they may watch the tube while zapping fast food packages, then retreat to their separate rooms to do their separate activities. In other words, kids and their parents do not talk. Occasionally a wise man or woman will advise callow youths: "Get closer to your father now, because you never know when he will pass from the scene."
Using his gift as a writer, one Blake Morrison wrote a best-selling memoir in 1993 of his failure to communicate with his dad. Now a film, directed by the Thai-born, British director Anand Tucker, who appears to specialize in directing book adaptations (Hilary and Jackie, which dealt with the renowned cellist Jacqueline du Pré, and Steve Martin's Shopgirl), emerges, featuring Morrison's observations of his dad, Arthur Morrison (Jim Broadbent) when Blake was a small boy in the 1950s (played by Bradley Johnson), a hormone-addled teen (Matthew Beard), and a present-day writer-poet (Colin Firth).
The long title is recited in a voice-over by the adult Blake: "And when did you last see your father? Was it last weekend or last Christmas? Was it before or after he exhaled his last breath? And was it him really, or was it a version of him, shaped by your own expectations and disappointments?" We seem never to know our fathers as they are to themselves: only the way we interpret them through our own eyes. The film, like the book, deals with one dad's life and death, a man who some would call charismatic but most viewers would probably agree is outgoing at best, aggressively intrusive and compulsively flirtatious at worst. He is a domineering man when in the full glory of his health, but highly vulnerable when he is afflicted with terminal cancer, dependent on the assistance of his son and wife, Kim (Juliet Stevenson).
This is the sort of tearjerker which, like films about romance, would find father and son on different wavelengths for the bulk of the story only to get together in mutually expressed love at the conclusion. However, Blake at no point truly bonds with the man, the father apparently covering up the love he feels for his wife and boy by his over-the-top, boisterous behaviour - his regular interference with his teen's life that finds young Blake and his sexual partner at the time, au-pair Sandra (Elaine Cassidy) dubbing him the sex police. "You'll go blind if you continue," warns Dr. Arthur Morrison, barging into his son's room without knocking, suspecting correctly the boy was not exactly reading at the time. In another scene, Arthur ruins Blake's attempts to hit on Rachel (Carey Mulligan), whom he meets on vacation only to find that the girl is more interested in Arthur.
Despite the hinted womanising, live-wire Arthur remains the most likeable character in the film. We see him through a collection of episodes as Tucker flips backward and forward to key events in Blake's life. These events include one humorous instalment wherein Arthur and teen Blake are camping out, finding themselves knee-deep in water from a nearby stream when they awaken. Somehow a lively, inquisitive Blake morphs into a glum adult who shows genuine joie-de-vivre with his wife, Kathy (Gina McKee) but who remains with mixed feelings about his father. Yet he's unhesitating about performing some unpleasant services, together with his mother, in caring for the terminally ill man at home.
As Blake, Colin Firth is quietly brilliant, conveying the contradictions of being a fully-grown son; angry at fate, desperate for closure, fully capable of making all the mistakes he saw his father make. Firth's manner in every film suggests a constant struggle between weakness and strength; he lets us see a hint of rot beneath his firmness, or suggests a core of steel behind his hesitancy. As the adult Blake, Firth gives complexity and humanity to what could have been a simple and surface performance in the hands of another actor. But as good as Firth is, Beard (making his feature film debut) is as good, or even better. He manages to show the myriad tones within father-son interaction with strong-but-never-showy acting - the exasperation, the frustration, the moments of shock when you can't quite believe you're enjoying the old man's company.
Then there's the great Jim Broadbent who, as the old man, is as good as he's ever been in his long career. Playing Arthur requires Broadbent to portray bold affability in the '50s and cancer-ravaged agonies in the late '80s. But Arthur's neither saintly in his whispered dying nor all bad in his vulgar life; Broadbent somehow brings sadness to Arthur's hearty humour and a sense of power to his bedridden final days. The supporting cast is excellent - including Gina McKee as Blake's wife and Juliet Stevenson as Arthur's wife - but Firth, Beard and Broadbent carry the film.
As a director, Tucker may have a few weaknesses - there's a few too many moments where the characters are captured in mirror-reflections - but he at the very least knows how to get performances out of his cast, and how to get good-looking scenes out of his crew. And the plot and themes of And When Did You Last See Your Father? may be simple, but that doesn't mean they're easy - especially as Blake's quest to understand his father's sins leads him to commit them. Tucker has a subtle yet effective capacity for keeping us focused where another film would look away, for leaving things unspoken that another film would spell out for us. And When Did You Last See Your Father? manages - in graceful and bleak ways, in unblinking yet sympathetic depictions of family life - to take an all-too-familiar plot and still find something fresh in it through skilful and well-crafted execution.
The plot is nearly non-existent, but in this movie it didn't bother me. I found it very enjoyable, and perhaps even more endearing for its randomness. And of course many of my favourite British actors were in this movie, so the acting was very well done.
An emotional film boasting great performances from the always great Jim Broadbent and Colin Firth (who shows he is great at seriuos drama as well as his usual rom coms). Firth plays Blake, a man who returns to see his father (Broadbent) who is on his death bed. Flashbacks reveal their troubled past as they try to make amends in the future.
Recalling memories, when your dad's dying! And going beyond a persona you've put on his face a long time ago! A conventional British drama in looks, but great narrative and bravura performances make it a vivid experience.
MCT:November 22, 2008
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