And When Did You Last See Your Father? (2007) Movie Review

"And When Did You Last See Your Father?" is, centrally, about the sides of themselves that parents reveal to their children, and the ones they keep hidden. It is an adaptation of Blake Morrison's memoirs about his childhood and, in later life, the death of his father. As a child his father is his hero, he seems 'invincible,' but by the time he is older, himself married with kids, he and his father have become rather estranged; it is then that his father is diagnosed with terminal cancer. The movie cuts between Blake's childhood as he grows up and starts seeing the less-than-invincible side of his father, and his life as an older man, an accomplished poet but not yet famous.

Blake's father, Arthur, is played by Jim Broadbent. Broadbent is a superb actor who has done everything from Shakespeare to Madonna (see: Moulin Rouge), though his best performance may have been in the TV film "Longford," for which he won a BAFTA. A significant difference between that character and this one is that "Longford" was so affecting by allowing us to see people as Lord Longford did, while here he is playing a character seen specifically through the eyes of his son. Arthur is popular locally, a practicing GP with little interest in the arts, and an altogether jolly, seemingly carefree sort. He is the sort of dad who is popular with your friends when you bring them round to the house, which at one point prompts the inevitable response from Blake, 'you don't need to live with him.'

Blake is played by Bradley Johnson (aged 8), Matthew Beard (teenager) and, finally, Colin Firth. All three are very good; particularly impressive is Beard, in his first movie role, whose disillusionment with his father drives him to leave to study English. His father wishes he wanted to be a GP, or anything a bit more practical. 'You already know how to read!' he says. That line sounds like it might be expressed angrily, but Broadbent manages to walk a fine line whereby, for the most part, any real or painful emotions are contained behind his joking, cheerful facade.

It is as a teen that Blake begins to question the father he thinks he knows, particularly after a camping trip together leads to him discovering something he wasn't supposed to. Feelings of his resentment for his father start to develop, not helped by his abundant enthusiasm and lack of interest in Blake's chosen career path.

"And When Did You Last See Your Father?" is a movie that understands the way that adults know things about their children that their children think they don't, but, more significantly, that children can see, hear and understand things that their parents think they are ignorant of. On another level, it is about a man trying to resolve his mixed feelings about his father, confused as they have been since his youth. He clearly still loves his father, but has trouble communicating with him in a direct way; they use small-talk and bicker with each other to avoid having to reveal themselves to one another. Colin Firth successfully communicates conflicting emotions; at times he seems to be saying, I love this man, but sometimes he can just be impossible. His mother, played by Juliet Stevenson in a very good performance, is perhaps more forgiving, but as with his father we only see her through Blake; the love, the stoicism, the depression and the arguing behind closed doors.

The movie is directed by Anand Tucker, who made "Shopgirl" and was set to direct the "His Dark Materials" movies before being replaced at the last minute. He successfully pulls off the parallel timelines, while the actors playing Blake show separate sides of the man, at different stages in his life, while you can still see the link; you can believe that the teenage Blake could grow into the adult one. Aside from his feelings about his father, as a teen he has to deal with his fears about the Cuban Missile Crisis along with his blooming sexuality, while as an adult he has a family of his own to worry about. Part of the strength of the movie is in how he grows to understand his father, how he finds himself having to deal with similar situations and also comes to understand their differences. The movie isn't perfect; there is little meaningful interaction with his father after he is diagnosed with cancer and we don't get a true enough sense of him drifting off, so the narration at the end seems to be mending things. However this is a very accomplished portrait of the real problems of families and the way that sometimes everyone is more comfortable not saying the thing that everyone knows, because that way you can go on pretending that it isn't there.