Let’s be honest – people with daddy issues may be a psychiatrist’s nightmare, but they make for pure cinematic gold. From pop culture icons Luke Skywalker and Indiana Jones to practically every character on Lost, telling a story with a sketchy father-son dynamic is – more often than not – a sure bet in Hollywood.
Which is why it was only a matter of time before someone would adapt the memoirs of Englishman Blake Morrison, compiled into the best-selling book And When Did You Last See Your Father?, to the silver screen. A savagely honest introspective that never toes the line of simple self-indulgence, Morrison’s work draws its strength from the raw realism of experiencing his father’s final days. When director Anand Tucker (Shopgirl) read about Morrison’s story, he immediately knew that he needed to portray the tale on screen.
“I read the script and it made me cry – and that doesn’t happen very often. In fact, only once in a blue moon,” Tucker said in an interview with The Diamondback. “It was incredibly moving. It is one of those scripts that makes you think about what it means to be a man, what it means to be a father.”
When Did You Last See Your Father? introduces Morrison (Colin Firth, Then She Found Me) briefly before doctors tell him that his father, Arthur (Jim Broadbent, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull), is terminally ill. Though set in 1989, writer David Nicholls’s (Starter for 10) narrative transcends the restrictions of time, weaving in flashbacks to the 39-year-old Morrison’s younger years.
A careful deconstruction of the father-son relationship, Tucker’s film focuses on the simple hardships that often cause strain within a family. As we watch Arthur spend time with the teenage Blake (Matthew Beard, Johnny and the Bomb), one can see the distance between the two slowly progress from subtle estrangement (frustration and tension in Blake’s voice) to blatant aversion (“I’m reading about someone who murders his father,” Blake notes). Meanwhile, Tucker constantly frames the older Blake with mirrors, providing a visceral hint toward the type of internal journey he is sent on during his father’s dying days.
In the film’s opening, Blake muses that his father “was lost if he couldn’t cheat in a small way.” As it turns out, an important piece of the movie’s puzzle involves Arthur cheating in a much bigger way, a mystery Tucker thought could drive a somewhat directionless story forward.
“There is the question of ‘Why is Blake so angry? What is the mystery at the heart of his family?'” Tucker said. “If you can find the right way to keep the question going, you can give a film like this momentum, so it becomes an emotional thriller.”
While the question may be compelling enough drama in real life, it comes across a bit tame on the screen.
Though the pacing drags while Tucker places focus on this fairly uninteresting plot thread, a stellar turn by Broadbent (described as “a force of nature” by his director) largely keeps the film afloat. Bursting through the seams with contagious energy, Broadbent’s Arthur shares a sensible give-and-take with his surly teenage son, his vigorous nature in the past playing up the mere shadow that is his modern, dying self.
Since Morrison’s actual writings have no definitive plot structure, Tucker had to constantly reinvent the film in the cutting room, noting he “pretty much had the movie in every possible shape” at one point or another. This dilemma is not entirely solved, as the flashback stories sometimes feel unnecessary or, more often, misplaced.
Though the movie is an unmemorable affair for long stretches, a softer side of Blake emerges during the final moments, giving the film weight by fully fleshing out the rather unsympathetic protagonist.
New Line Cinema originally tabbed Tucker to helm Philip Pullman’s blockbuster, The Golden Compass, but the 45-year-old director left the project due to creative differences. By an ironic twist of fate, the quiet, intrapersonal story of Morrison and his father fell into his lap soon after. After having lunch with Morrison and “grilling” him on his life – “I’m a vampire like that,” he explained – Tucker realized the author fully respected his creative intuition.
“It was a really brilliant experience from beginning to end,” Tucker said. “I had just been involved in a big Hollywood nightmare, and it was a joy and a pleasure to come into a smaller movie and to have the freedom to make the movie I really wanted to.”
tfloyd1@umd.edu
RATING: 3 STARS OUT OF 5
