Starring Colin Firth and Jim Broadbent

AND WHEN DID YOU

LAST SEE YOUR FATHER?

 

 

COMING SOON

A deeply affecting story about the challenges of coming to terms with the past lives and old sins of our parents, And When Did You Last See Your Father? features a wonderfully restrained performance by Colin Firth as an introverted man attempting to make peace with his overbearing, egotistical father when the latter is struck down by illness. Blake, as a sensitive eight-year-old in the tightlipped England of the fifties, saw his father, Arthur (Jim Broadbent), as something of an ogre. Blake suffers through awkward camping trips and irritating family holidays, never once receiving a word of praise from his father. Dominated by Arthur’s personality throughout his life, Blake gradually resigns himself to their unequal relationship as he gets older. When his father falls terminally ill, the adult Blake is compelled to confront the difficult history they share, which has prevented any meaningful connection between the two men. At the same time, Blake comes to understand that in his own clumsy and offensive way, Arthur was doing his best to show his son he loved him. As Arthur’s health deteriorates – a process shown with unflinching, devastating realism – Blake struggles to mend the wounds of the past. And When Did You Last See Your Father? avoids sentimentality in favour of a hard-hitting meditation on regret and the uneasy but powerful bond between fathers and sons.—Piers Handling

UK/Ireland, 2007, 92 min., rated PG-13

Dir.: Anand Tucker • Writer: David Nichols based on the novel by Blake Morrison