And When Did You Last See Your Father?

Review by Anthony Morris

There is a certain kind of memoir film makers can't help but be drawn to.

It is the memoir of a person who (whether directly or indirectly) goes through a whole lot of suffering and learns to appreciate life even more because of it.

Problem is, with a book, not only can an author guide the reader to the parts they want said reader to focus on (dad might be dying now, but I'm going to tell you about the funniest holiday we ever had together and we will all have a laugh) but the reader can put the book down and moderate the impact if it gets to be too much.

Films don't work like that, and so what we get are movies such as And When Did You Last See Your Father, in which Colin Firth plays a son who has never quite gotten along with his brash and free wheeling father (Jim Broadbent) and who sits around having flashbacks to his youth while his father slowly dies of bowel cancer. 

To be fair, there is nothing particularly wrong with the film itself.

Both Firth (as the emotionally constrained son) and Broadbent (as the good times father who doesn't seem to realise or care that his family know what he is up to "on the side") are both well cast and provide solid performances here. 

The story itself mostly avoids easy sentiment (there is no teary reconciliation) and creates a portrait of a clearly much loved man that is actually refreshingly balanced regarding his faults.

But, at the end of the day, this is still a film entirely about a man who is dying and his son who is still very angry at him.

And unless you feel like a well made reminder that life is hard and death is final - you might want to spend the time talking to your own loved ones instead.

DVD EXTRAS

Strangely no extras included here - or at least on the copy we recieved. Not even a fluffy featurette or a simple chat with cast members. It seems this is independent film making at it's most budget constrained.

Conclusion: Movie 70% Extras: N/A