And When Did You Last See Your Father

Review by Anthony Morris

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

It's 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'll 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 films like And When Did You Last See Your Father, in which Colin Firth plays a son who's 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's 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's up to on the side) are both well cast and provide solid performances here. 

The story itself mostly avoids easy sentiment - there's no teary reconciliation here - and creates a portrait of a clearly much-loved man that's refreshingly balanced regarding his faults.

But this is still a film entirely about a man who's dying and his son who's 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.

3 out of 5

And When Did You Last See Your Father
Australian release: 31st July, 2008
Official Site: And When Did You Last See Your Father
Cast: Jim Broadbent, Colin Firth, Juliet Stevenson, Gina McKee
Director: Anand Tucker