Sometimes a film can have a great cast attached, a good script and a good director and still come up short. For a good example of that see this film.It's not bad by any means, it just doesn't achieve it's potential. I thought Colin Firth did well, ditto Jim Broadbent, but there is too slow a pace, and too much wasted dialogue for this film to do a lot for me sadly.It's a shame because it should have been great

Jim Broadbent and Colin Firth are exceptionally well-cast (and excellent as usual) portraying a father and son in the latter portion of their days together. The blustery old father has been diagnosed with cancer and only a short time left to live, causing his son--who was always embarrassed of his cheating, gad-about parent--to reflect on their times together. No new insights or observations into the eternal tug-of-war that goes on between son and father, though it is well accomplished and finely tuned. The flashbacks are a bit of a nuisance after a time, as one longs for more insight into the present. Firth, who always seems to be photographed from behind a piece of furniture or a banister, is controlled and subdued while Broadbent gets the juicier part of his showboating elder, the kind of man who expects applause for his rampant storytelling and joshing, stinging criticism. Incisive at times with uncomfortable truths, and undoubtedly moving by the finish; not a big night at the movies, but very watchable. **1/2 from ****

It's the English countryside and a young boy coming of age, it's a middle aged man coming back to see his father on his deathbed to confront his personal demons surrounding his childhood and the shortcomings of a man who was quick with a joke but a bit slow with integrity. This is a good tear jerker that hits all the right notes and is well acted to boot. It's dreamy, and bittersweet, not a lot of action but a ton of character development and overall a fine movie. I could have gone for a lot more skin with sex scenes to spice things up a bit but then all the blue haired grannies might choke on their biscuits and tea while watching it. This is a solid drama/coming of age/remembering your dad kind of affair.

My last recollection of my father was the look on his face after I placed him in a nursing home in Miami, Florida. Wracked by Parkinson's disease and heart trouble, I was saddened by how far removed he was from the authoritarian and emotionally distant man I feared when I was young, yet a lifetime of resentment could not be entirely forgotten. Indeed, in our society the pressure to love our fathers no matter how awful their behavior is so strong that it often leaves children deeply conflicted. Anand Tucker's And When Did You Last See Your Father? is a film about such conflict, though it does not question the underlying bond of love. Based on the autobiography by British writer Blake Morrison with a screenplay by David Nicholls, the film's title asks the question "when" but seeks an answer that requires more than a date. It asks for the last time in your life when you really saw your father, not as an authority figure but as a complete human being, the complex individual that you may have never seen before.The film charts the relationship between Doctor Arthur Morrison (Jim Broadbent) and his son Blake (Colin Firth), a writer, over a period of thirty years. As his dad lies dying of cancer, Blake is reminded of their difficult relationship over the years. Using mirrors to suggest there are many different angles with which to view life, Tucker catches events in Blake's life that remain with him and threaten to keep the two apart at a moment when they clearly need each other. Through extensive flashbacks showing Blake as a child, teenager, and adult, the film allows us to understand how events, both small and large, took on mass as the years went by. It makes clear that while Arthur was a devoted father, he was not above being overbearing, deceitful and duplicitous, especially regarding his infidelities with Aunt Beattie (Sarah Lancashire), an open secret in the household, though one that his wife (Juliet Stevenson) came to accept. Stevenson is outstanding in her role of the suffering partner who tries to make up for her husband's aloofness by giving the children her unconditional love.In flashbacks, we see the eight-year old Blake (Bradley Johnson) seeing his father flaunting the rules by waving his stethoscope to get to the front of a queue waiting to enter a sports event; the fifteen-year-old Blake (Matthew Beard) putting up with his father's whimsy during a camping trip that left them soaked but liberated by driving lessons on the beach, his annoyance when his father, who called him "fathead", walked in on his first sexual awakening with a live-in-maid (Elaine Cassidy). We see the adult Blake (Colin Firth) recalling how his father refused to acknowledge his award of a literary prize at a gala, and then had the tenacity to call writing poetry "not a real job".And When Did You Last See Your Father is a lyrical tone poem that is marked by brilliant performances. An honest and unsentimental film, it brings dignity to the subject of family relationships and has a powerful conclusion that left much of the audience, including myself, in tears. The best performances are by Matthew Beard as the sensitive but self-righteous adolescent who is hard put to give his father the benefit of the doubt and by Jim Broadbent as the overbearing but loving father. As the final days play out, the quality of Broadbent's performance is such that, while we understand Blake's misgivings, we can still see Arthur as a complex individual with both flaws and virtues. Blake still longs for his father's acceptance and, as his father lay dying, asks him: "It would be good to talk at some point, wouldn't it?" Yet the answer, "What about?" underscores the superficial banter that replaces conversation in many households.