Morrison's book is painfully honest and whilst the film is sensitively handled and impeccably crafted it is also curiously distant and unmoving.
Comment
09/01/07
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When Did You Last See Your Father? (2008)
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Reviews Counted:91
Fresh:66
Rotten:25
Average Rating:6.6/10
Consensus: Sensitive to a fault, Tucker's adaptation of the Morrison novel is nonetheless solidly scripted and well-acted; guard your heartstrings.
Theatrical Release:Jun 6, 2008 Limited
Box Office: $732,392
Synopsis: Celebrated English actors Jim Broadbent and Colin Firth team up for this moving drama about a father and son. Based on Blake Morrison's autobiographical novel, WHEN DID YOU LAST SEE YOUR FATHER?... [More]
Starring: Colin Firth, Jim Broadbent, Juliet Stevenson, Gina McKee
Director: Anand Tucker
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Reviews for When Did You Last See Your Father?
When it comes down to it, the story of a son who needs validation and his dying father is utterly predictable.
06/26/08
Feels like just another classy soap opera.
10/05/07
Frustratingly stagnant at times but ultimately a moving story about a dying father and the son who must come to terms with him.
08/29/08
Even as it explores familiar deceits and self-delusions, When Did You Last See Your Father? feels, in the end, as if it's entangled in them.
06/08/08
A bore of a memoir.
11/06/08
An unashamed tearjerker that’s all wrapping and no center.
08/22/07
Amounts to a glorified Hallmark Hall of Fame special, except with British accents.
06/14/08
This father-son drama never rises above the archetypal: its conflict will be familiar to all, its resolution a surprise to none.
06/13/08
A decade ago Morrison’s biography explored a grief that, I suspect unwittingly, indeed shockingly, exposed the shallow times. The film doesn’t cut the same mustard.
10/05/07
Tucker keeps things subdued almost to the point of inertia.
07/03/08
The dynamics are overfamiliar and the whole movie feels vaguely punitive, an exercise in human misery that’s not improved by director Anand Tucker’s rote tear-jerking.
06/05/08
'Pretty good, for a movie about death' isn't really good enough.
06/06/08
Top CriticJim Broadbent creates a frustratingly complex character as dad and newcomer Matthew Beard is terrific as the teenaged Blake Morrison, but Colin Firth as the adult Blake brings nothing but melancholy mope to the role
06/06/08
When Did You Last See Your Father? is based on a true story, but it still feels contrived.
07/11/08
Grief is difficult to portray without being morbid, and despite valiant efforts to follow in the footsteps of Big Fish, which swept us away with uplifting reminiscences and amusing anecdotes, this drama struggles to find its equilibrium.
07/25/08
One would only hope that a film about death and dying wouldn't have to feel quite so lifeless.
06/06/08
File under 'Don't know what you got 'til it's gone' and go buy a Father's Day gift.
06/05/08
A low-key Big Fish minus the whimsical fantasy.
06/01/08
...a movie that would probably be better off as a poem.
09/09/08
Latest News for When Did You Last See Your Father?
November 01, 2008:
A keen and candid subjective scrutiny of parenting through the eyes of a damaged offspring, but a relentlessly grim, insular perspective that rarely ventures outside those long festering psychological wounds. 
More...
December 14, 2007:
Atonement, Control Lead London Film Critics Noms
The London Critics Circle has announced the nominees for its year-end awards, with Anton Corbijn's Control and Joe Wright's Atonement leading the pack at eight nominations apiece. More...
September 09, 2007:
Trailer & Poster review.
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