Originally published in Verbicide issue #24

Sony Pictures Classics
92 min., dir. by Anand Tucker, with Colin Firth, Juliet Stevenson, and Jim Broadbent

After a long stint of playing the festival circuit (beginning in Telluride, Colorado in September of last year and concluding this past April in Florida with both the Miami and Sarasota film festivals), When Did You Last See Your Father? is finally ready for a limited theatrical release. Consistently poignant and often comical, the British drama sheds light on true-to-life issues that come with the deaths of those we are close to.

The film opens with an award ceremony in honor of the poetic work of Colin Firth’s character, Blake. During the black tie event we see that Blake’s father, Arthur (Jim Broadbent), is in attendance. The main premise of the film becomes quite clear when we see Arthur giving more attention to the party’s guests than his own son. As a disappointed Blake watches from afar, he shares his greatest wish with his wife: to hear the two words “well done” from his father, two words he has never known his father to speak his entire life. Shortly afterward, Blake’s anger turns to despair as Arthur finds himself bed ridden and nearing death. The remainder of the film jumps back and forth between past and present. The audience learns of the love/hate relationship Blake has had with his father since childhood while also watching Blake’s struggle to understand his father in the final moments of his life.

When Did You Last See Your Father? may be to Jim Broadbent what Sideways was to Paul Giamatti. While Broadbent has always impressed both audiences and critics with a wide variety of supporting characters throughout the years, “When Did…?” really gives the aging actor a chance to stretch the limits of his talents. Arthur is a complex character, and, like Blake, we find ourselves loving him one moment and despising him the next. Riding the fine line between charming and sleazy, Broadbent’s performance is a tour de force of raw realism. Through Arthur we see how the charismatic qualities of popular appeal can be used to bring both joy and spite to those around you.

Keeping up with the acting veteran is the young Matthew Beard, who in his film debut plays Blake as a teenager during the flashback sequences. Portraying a character caught up in puberty, Beard succeeds in showing the angst one would have with a flirtatious father whose wandering eye and huge mouth brings embarrassment and confusion to every day.

And since Beard is so convincing as a younger Blake, it almost goes unnoticed that Colin Firth is only in the half of the film that takes place during present day. But Firth makes good with the screen time he’s given, flexing his acting muscles in a way he could not in other movies like Bridget Jones’ Diary. After seeing what the English actor is capable of, I can only suggest to those also skeptical to leave their past impressions at the door of the theater.

When Did You Last See Your Father? reminds us that nothing, even death, can sever the connections we have to our loved ones. The film’s subject matter may not be making any new ground as far as storylines are concerned, but if you’re going to choose a topic to reiterate, I can’t think of a better subject to reinforce than the importance of family.