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In movies, many a sin of the father is rehashed on the old man's deathbed.
There hardly seems a cinematic son alive who doesn't have an axe to grind as he says his goodbyes.
Remove the quirk from Tim Burton's Big Fish and you get When Did You Last See Your Father?, a movie that, once you leave the theatre, will merge in your head with any number of dramas with similar I-hate-my-dad plots (what a great Father's Day present!). You will likely, however, clearly remember Jim Broadbent's performance as a dying scalawag whose life is relived in flashbacks.
Director Anand Tucker (Shopgirl), recreates the melancholy from that moribund Steve Martin effort in this adaptation of a Blake Morrison novel.
However, the mental litmus test of the movie's success is how much you sympathize with the son's assessments of the old man's "crimes." In this case, it's hard to see what justifies a life of nursing a grudge.
We meet Blake (Colin Firth), a published poet as his doctor father Arthur (Broadbent) is diagnosed with terminal cancer. Even under these dire circumstances, their exchange is strained, and three weeks pass -- much to the ire and chagrin of Blake's sister (Claire Skinner) and mother (Juliet Stevenson) -- before father and son see each other again.
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But Blake is now here to stay, distancing himself on the phone from his wife Kathy (Gina McKee) and watching his life pass before his eyes in a series of vignettes, memories ignited by objects and rooms.
Most of Blake's "life" is in the hands of young actor Matthew Beard, who exudes a constant brooding resentment to Arthur's life-of-the-party lifestyle. (There are a few "adult" flashbacks as well, one in which Arthur chooses the occasion of a poetry award gala to publicly scoff at his son's career -- "All I ever wanted were two simple words -- 'Well done,' " Blake says to Kathy in the closest hint we ever get to what's eating him. I mean, it's not like he beats him.
The fact is, the old man is much more fun to follow than his blame-throwing son. He BS's the family's way into the best seats at horse races, takes his son camping to test a "waterproof sleeping bag" invention, and generally goes out of his way to include him in his adventures. In a world where the number one beef against fathers is that they sacrifice time with their families for their job, Arthur is an exception.
But Blake finds himself becoming more and more introverted in his father's shadow. And there's a central infidelity in Arthur and his wife Kim's marriage, embodied by the constant presence of vivacious Aunt Beaty (Sarah Lancashire).
Toss in a lass-as-metaphor -- Elaine Cassidy as the vivacious Scottish housekeeper Sandra whom Blake was "shagging" as a teenager -- and we have a generational continuum in motion. Will Blake see Sandra again? Will he commit the same offence for which he excoriates his father?
Who cares?
It's Broadbent's movie, and he really does go from one-foot-in-the-grave to youthful and crackling-with-charisma on a dime. It's not so much that he does it, but that it seems so effortless and non-ostentatious.
The problem is, as a father, I can't imagine him being anything but admired.
(This film is rated PG)