When Did You Last See Your Father?

Described on the director’s commentary track as a "male weepy” designed to "harness the emotion of each scene” rather than relying on flashy stylizations, distancing humour and the many structural contrivances that most male-centric movies are often subjected to, When Did You Last See Your Father is a mostly affecting visual poem. Indeed, this describes the vastly different reactions that varying individuals have had to this film, ranging from outright hostility towards its slow building and sincere emotional catharsis to reactions of genuine emotion and connectivity. Given that men are essentially socialized to scoff at internalized reflections of personal emotional folly — aside from that completely pretentious and existential "we live in a corporate culture based on a lie and only I see the truth” crap that undergrads are endlessly babbling about — the limited success for Father is unsurprising. Instead, the jock-itch crowd vies for snide remarks and an adherence to cultural expectations that have no time or patience for a Stella or Anywhere But Here with fewer vaginas. This is unfortunate, as less of a broad dismissal for such trivialities might save many wives coping with their husbands’ inevitable mid-life crises and need to pollinate spunky 20-year olds. The DVD comes only with a commentary from director Anand Tucker, where he discusses the fluid nature of the story, as the film is essentially an effort to make sense of the many significant moments in a relationship, which lead to either failure or success. This relationship being the one between Blake (Colin Firth), an angry, closed-off writer and his father Arthur (Jim Broadbent), a larger-than-life man who is unable to hide the disappointment he has in his son’s bookish ways. Unsurprisingly, this father-son battle comes to a head while Arthur is on his deathbed when Blake decides to explore how roads that are paved with good intentions don’t always lead to the desired destination. It is a seriously upsetting but beautiful film and will prove appealing only to those who are not "too cool” for a story that asks them to feel a little bit.