Complete A-Z list


And When Did You Last See Your Father?

5/10

Stars: Colin Firth, Jim Broadbent, Juliet Stevenson, Elaine Cassidy, Gina McKee, Sarah Lancashire

Director: Anand Tucker

About as grim, enervating and depressing as you'd expect from a film about a man who's dying, this is well acted by a cast of British luvvies, but not directed in any way that compels you to watch the film.

Writer Blake (Firth) remembers the good times with his father (Broadbent) - a camping holiday, an impromptu driving lesson on a deserted beach - but they sink into a slough of despond in comparison with the downside.

His old man, a doctor, was always putting him down and always went for the idea of getting something for nothing. Then there was the ongoing affair with 'Auntie' Beaty (Lancashire), a bitter pill for Blake's mother (Stevenson) to swallow.

When his father is diagnosed with terminal cancer, Blake returns to the family home, revisits his first love (Cassidy) and tries to find out whether Beaty's daughter is his half-sister. If the deathbed scenes are tough to watch, the 'sunlit' memories are hardly better - though photographer Howard Atherton ensures that they paint pretty pictures.

Alan Frank

UK 2007. UK Distributor: Buena Vista. Technicolor.
91 minutes. Not widescreen. UK certificate: 12A.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 1, Violence/Horror 0, Drugs 0, Swearing 1.

Review date: 02 Oct 2007