Written by David Nicholls
Produced by Elizabeth Karlsen, Stephen Woolley
Duration 92 minutes
From the dawn of artistic expression, stories have dealt with Daddy Issues. Ancient Greek tragedian Sophocles threw patricide into Oedipus Rex; Hamlet’s dad came back from the grave to kick off the whole revenge plot; Henrik Ibsen explored 'the sins of the fathers' in his play Ghosts.
And movies dealing with angst toward a male parent or authority figure are too numerous to count. Just off the top
of my head: TOP GUN, THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS, THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, ON THE
ROCKS, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, BEGINNERS, THE SAVAGES, THE FATHER, BLAME IT ON
RIO, THIS BOY’S LIFE, THE SHINING, AD ASTRA, INTERSTELLAR, SOMEWHERE, ABOUT A
BOY, BEAUTIFUL BOY, KRAMER VS KRAMER, NEBRASKA, THERE WILL BE BLOOD… (OK, some
of those weren’t off the top of my head; Google was invented for a reason, people.)
Most of the above focus on the child coming to terms with living up to the expectations/reputation of the pater familias. But here are some rarely (if ever) explored twists on the topic that I for one would like to see:
– The father struggles to emulate the child,
whose success has overtaken his own.
– The child is more interested in emulating their
mother, much to their father's chagrin.
– The child suffers an existential crisis when they realise
that they actually have no desire to emulate their father at all.
– The child finds out that their famous father is in fact a fake, but ironically the intricacy of the deception makes
the child start respecting him for the first time.
– Excessively focusing on their intergenerational strife distracts the parent and child so much that neither achieves anything in life and they both die miserable.
AND WHEN DID YOU LAST SEE YOUR FATHER?, meanwhile, goes for the old 'we've always had a complicated relationship, Dad, but because you're nearing death now we’re finally incentivised to reconcile' angle.
As the father of the title, Jim Broadbent is established in Firth's sepia-tinted childhood flashbacks as a blagger, grifting his way into a horse track's members' enclosure on a family outing. He's a self-important, pompous blowhard – not a typical role for the usually cuddly Broadbent, more reminiscent of his earlier work as cocky bent copper Roy Slater in the sitcom Only Fools and Horses. Despite the man's flaws, the juvenile Firth idolises his dad, opining in voiceover "My father was a hero ... I thought he'd live forever."
Back in the present ('London, 1989'), adult Firth is a writer, accepting a literary prize at a lavish ceremony. "Two words are all I'd like: 'well' and 'done'," he laments to his wife, while holding the award flimsily and looking forlornly across at his old man, who is going around the posh do quaffing free booze and drawing attention away from his son.
Then: the bad news that we all knew was coming. The doctor who delivers it has a bedside manner that's ham-fisted to the point of being humorous, like the scene is a relic from an earlier draft when this was a comedy. "Your father's going to die," he blurts out. "Of course, we all die sooner or later - but in his case, it's going to be sooner rather than later." It's not even as if he's a bumbling intern or anything.
From frame one, WHEN DID YOU LAST feels like it must have been based on a book ... which it was, but it's a little more complicated than that. When I saw David Nicholls’ name among the writers' credits on IMDb, I assumed that this was adapted from one of his weepy novels (like One Day or Us) – but actually he was the one doing the adapting. Turns out Firth is playing real-life poet Blake Morrison, and Nicholls fashioned a screenplay out of Morrison's memoirs.
I'd never heard of Blake Morrison, since my knowledge of his chosen medium pretty much begins and ends with doing Carol Ann Duffy poems at school. I also remember the odd random line from other people's work, like "pick a corner in that charnel house" (turns out that was 'Vultures' by Chinua Achebe) and a dying mouse that "curls in agony big as itself" (Gillian Clarke – 'The Field Mouse'). Anyway, while I respect poetry, I've come to accept that it's one of those things I just don't get on with – like rugby, or watermelon... or musicals.
Anyway, following Dad's diagnosis, the film's structure settles into switching back and forth between yet more soft-focus flashbacks to an idyllic childhood (possibly apocryphal?), then back to Firth in the present trying to have serious chats with the ailing Broadbent, who is a reluctant communicator at the best of times. The past bits get more interesting when they move on to Morrison as a teenager, circa 1962 – as signified by the Cuban Missile Crisis being all over the radio. His memories of those times alone with his father include rain-sodden camping trips, driving lessons in a vintage Alvis convertible on a deserted beach, and Dad regularly calling him 'fat-head'. Oh, and he remembers suspecting the notorious Lothario of having an affair, or affairs plural, possibly even siring bastard offspring.
WHEN DID YOU LAST is professionally done and classily played - maybe a bit too classy, to be honest. The whole thing is all rather nice, in a Sunday-afternoon tea-time kind of way, albeit with a little bit of sex and the odd F-word thrown in.
Nonetheless, when the inevitable tear-jerking ending arrives and Morrison completes his journey to accepting his dad as a flawed but ultimately caring man, it does feel earned. I've only ever cried twice at movies (the blindly crawling around fruitlessly ending of THE KILLER [1989] and Sarah Conner finally telling John that she loves him in TERMINATOR 2), but this came close to being number three. Good show, fat-heads.
Valid use of the word ‘last’? Yes, this last time is pretty definitive.
What would a movie called AND WHEN DID YOU FIRST SEE YOUR FATHER? be about? These days, usually he comes into view immediately after the doctor. In times gone by, he would have been nowhere near the maternity ward, instead camped down the pub anxiously awaiting a phone call.
Previously: THE TOXIC AVENGER PART III: THE LAST TEMPTATION OF TOXIE
Next time: LAST CHRISTMAS
Check out my books: Jonathanlastauthor.com
