NOW IN THEATERS

WHEN DID YOU LAST SEE YOUR FATHER?
Rated PG-13
Jim Broadbent, Colin Firth, Juliet Stevenson, Gina McKee, Elaine Cassidy

Brian’s Rating       

The title of this film should provide sufficient warning that you’re not going to get a happy story.

The father and son portrayed in When Did You Last See Your Father? make a miserable pair, one an overbearing philandering paterfamilias and the other an unhappy, unfulfilled, filial failure.

And while Jim Broadbent and Colin Firth turn in fine performances as parent and child, the film is dreadfully slow and frequently painful to watch.

As his father’s death approaches, Firth’s character recalls a seemingly endless parade of dark childhood memories in a series of flashbacks poorly orchestrated by the editor’s clumsy hand.

I can’t discount the work of these two very fine actors but When Did You Last See Your Father? would not be my first choice for an evening out.