The Last Time You See Your Father
The Struggle of a Dying Guardian through Blake Morrison's Experience
Perhaps appropriately with the coming of Father’s Day, Anand Tucker brings a part of Blake Morrison’s life to the screen in “And When Did You Last See Your Father”. Blake Morrison, an accomplished writer, wrote the book of the same name to discuss the final days of his cancer-stricken father, Arthur Morrison. Anand Tucker manages to bring the struggle to life with the vitality and sadness of Blake's memories.
"And When Did You Last See Your Father" is that time in everyone’s life that happened, or perhaps will happen: the time when you will find your own childhood and remember the greatest and sorriest times in your life, and as you find things that you wish to discuss with your parent, you find it is too late. The movie flows like the passage of thought. As time moves and returns to focal points in history, we also see how fixed in time this house is as it moves from dead silence to activity room by room and memory by memory as Blake tries to figure out just who this man was that he calls his dad.
Jim Broadbent portrays Arthur as a lovable old scamp: a doctor with a ready smile, an adventurous tromp, a witty quip, and an ease for the ladies, right to his final days. He contrasts heavily against Blake’s own inverted stuffiness, who spends his days preferring a lampshade reading novels that his father considers worthless. His mother, played by Juliet Stevenson, seems to play a gap between the two, but always with strain and hidden concerns towards his father’s dangerous streak. Arthur his his own secrets, and Blake’s insightfulness at noticing how “easy” his father is with the ladies (his aunt especially) is not totally unjustified when he uncovers the minute duplicities he plays with him and his own mother.
Colin Firth shines with his ability to show Blake as the man of mixed emotions. By returning to watch the final sad days of his father’s dying, we see the crushes he had hidden from his well-intentioned father, his mother’s own silence about Arthur’s affairs, and the fact that no one else knows or wants to admit knowing about them. He wants to ask his father before it's too late, but opportunity is too fickle, as is death.
But that is not to say that it is not a disappointing movie. When the movie ends, you may find a sort of relief that comes with the passing on that unburdens everyone. There is something touching about how the film pulls you in and tries to remind you how no one is perfect but, despite this, you still live with people who care deeply enough to try and bring happiness in your life. This is definitely a movie to watch with your own parents on Father’s Day (or any day for that matter), at the very least to remind people of what they should appreciate while they have it and how to cope with what it means to lose someone you always loved but never wanted to admit it.
You Might Like it For:
- Strong acting
- Witty dialogue
- Coming of age tale
- Suspense
- An exceptional book-to-movie translation
