When did you last see a bad movie?
Added 7/5/2009
My wife and I rented this movie because we like Colin Firth's comedy. Well, not only is this no comedy, but it's actually pointlessly depressing. The film focuses on the life of a son who is affected and overpowered by his father's personality and extramarital affairs. He never had the opportunity to confront his father about their relationship, creating an unresolved tension in his life. This is a common issue in real life relationships today, yet there are actually not a whole lot of movies about father-son relationships. However, the characters in "When Did You Last See Your Father?" are pretty shallow and rote.
On top of all of that, the British accents were very difficult to understand, and there is no option for English-language subtitles. As Churchill noted, the Americans and Brits are two people divided by a common language.
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Worth seeing for Broadbent
Added 2/8/2009
Jim Broadbent is one of our greatest living actors and he is incapable of giving a bad performance. This is a difficult role for him, since the character he plays is radically flawed and not particularly likeable. The story concerns his son's attempts to reconnect with him as he approaches death. It is told in flashbacks and it is touching in moments and beautifully filmed throughout. The problem is that it lacks a clear structure, a plot arc that successfully shapes the action and effects an emotional and intellectual response. With such an arc, each scene advances the action and multiplies its impact. Here the story meanders and the emotional interplay of the characters fails to reach a satisfactory, layered conclusion. As some of the Amazon reviewers have noted, the film will not lack an audience because many would watch Colin Firth reading the phone book. I don't think one should miss any performance by Broadbent, but to see him at the absolute top of his form, see Topsy-Turvy. Firth is an actor with more range than some give him credit for; see him in the very interesting film, The Advocate.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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British drama about fatehr son relationship
Added 1/18/2009
Very touching film about complex father son relationship. When father is diagnosed with cancer, his son goes through a flashback of the events from his early adolescence that explains the strained relationship between father and son. Father had a greater than life personality, while son was more introverted and emotional. Long time ago indiscretions commited by the father seem irreconcilable to the son. His attempt to get answers is impeded by the terrible sickness that seems to take over the situation.
It is a touching story about parent child relationship. It is also a story about grief and the fact that sometimes we would rather have our parents around so we can hate them then loose them to death and life long sorrow for not being able to have them around ourselves except in our memories.
Wonderful cast of very fine British actors. Fantastic story about one very special father one would love to have around no matter what.
2 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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I Never Sang for My Father (redux)
Added 12/17/2008
Colin Furth and Jim Broadbent are wonderful actors. This movie is painful as relations between child and parents frequently are. Question is whether the good times outweigh the bad. Blake's father was abusive. Not physically but verbally and that can be almost as bad. I think he was more forgiving of his father at the end than I would have been.
While watching this film I was reminded of a film from the seventies with Gene Hackman and Melvyn Douglas which was based on a stage play of the same name, "I Never Sang for My Father," about a son coming to care for his miserable, abusive elderly father whose wife had just died. Another heartbreaking film about sons and fathers and the responsibilities of children to their sometimes abusive parents.
Both pictures leave food for thought.
2 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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and when did you last see your father?
Added 12/17/2008
Excellent drama. All three men actors should shear a prize for the acting.
MY NAME IS NOT EDUARDO BUT SUSANA ROTTENBERG
0 out of 3 people found this helpful.
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Stylish and Tasty Aperitif
Added 11/7/2009
There is nothing like a dose of Noel Coward to remind you of the dearth of genuine wit at the modern cineplex. "Easy Virtue", an updated version of Coward's play, provides sparkling wit in spades.
Jessica Biel is formidable as the American bride of John (Ben Barnes), AKA "Panda", the pampered son who never was intended to escape the family clutches, but instead has returned with an interloper. Headstrong Larita (Biel) crashes headlong into the deceptively thorny confines of a well-to-do family going to seed. The household is presided over by a wounded tigress in the form of mother Veronica, played by a rather wan looking Kristen Scott Thomas. Veronica warily circles the confident Larita, withholding her claws for the perfect moment. Meanwhile, the father (Colin Firth) has been wounded in a different way, and summarily exiled to the estate's periphery. Two neurotic daughters, (Kimberly Nixon and Katherine Parkinson) complete the cast and provide some welcomely dizzy interludes.
In the midst of some lovely shots of the pastoral British locale, the plot reveals the gradual escalation of tensions between Biel and Scott-Thomas, until the final, fateful showdown.
At times serious, at times playful, director Stephen Elliott at times introduces scenes by having an actor warble a line from a Cole Porter or Noel Coward song, and over the concluding credits, you'll hear the "Easy Virtue Orchestra" doing a light-hearted recreation of the Bonzo Dog Doo-dah Band's set piece, "The Intro and the Outro".
All in all, "Easy Virtue" may be a bite-sized pleasure, but it still has its charms.
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Jessica Biel Over Her Head
Added 11/3/2009
Jessica Biel has a GREAT body. Jessica Biel is not a good actress. She can pull off garbage roles in movies that don't require a whole lot of range but in a movie like this she stands out. She stands out cause she has a great body (seeing her dance with a next to nothing on white silky clinging gown was great) but the other way she stands out is that she seems like an amateur actress compared to everybody else in the film. This movie really was bad and then toward the end it got a little better. The only reason I stuck thru it was to see 'The Body' and I wouldn't recommend this movie even for that.
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Ok, if you are stuck on a plane..
Added 11/2/2009
I saw this on a flight from LA to Boston. As others have mentioned the story concerns a young man bringing home his new *older* and experienced wife to meet his family. His mother and family take an instant dislike to her and after a series of slapstick events (including the death of a dog- never that funny to me), the entire family hates her, save his dad. I had no problem with any of the acting. Jessica Biel is fine here.
However, she is obviously not that old and even with make up and a bad wig, it was shocking seeing her referred to as the *older* woman. Perhaps if she had seemed older it would have explained why the mother takes such an instant dislike. I see Biel's character and the mom as being a lot alike, strong, but the material never recognizes that and makes mom out to be the bad guy. Even while telling the audience the mom is struggling to keep the family farm running despite weak finances.
Creepy and distracting was Colin Firth. The dad, who takes a like to this very pretty experienced woman. He is the only one in the family who likes her. But, dad is a creep. You see it is revealed that dad went to war in WWI but failed to return to the family. Instead he went off visiting houses of ill repute and it was mom who went to find him and dragged him back to the family to raise his kids. His adoration seems to me not much more than a creep seeing opportunity to get some. There is a very awkward Tango dance at the end that seemed meant to push the point across that the dad and Biel were attracted to each other. The movie makes it like the father is someone the audience should have sympathy with but I didn't see it that way.
In the end Biel's character leaves her new young husband and one is left wondering if that isn't all for the best. Her young husband was young and immature and his keeping them at the family house despite his wife's discomfort showed that they were not a good couple and the marriage was a mistake. For them, you think, good that is what needed to happen. For the viewer it is like, why did anyone think that would be a good story? Perhaps at one point there was some biting social commentary there, but I didn't see it.
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