Pitfalls of Puberty: When Did You Last See Your Father?

Ahhhh, what could have been. We're a little tore up from watching the new Colin Firth flick When Did You Last See Your Father? this week; a reaction to watching the fine acting of Jim Broadbent run headfirst into a script about the pitfalls of puberty.

The book by the same name received staggering reviews as a popular memoir that refused to pander, and acted as a cathartic confession for its young author. Unfortunately, although the film, too, avoids letting its audience off the hook, it can't seem to locate its emotional center. If found, this emotion we speak of would likely be located somewhere inside Colin Firth's sour puss.

The film's opening gives us hope, as Dr. Arthur Morrison (Broadbent) takes the family convertible on the wrong side of the road to bypass a traffic pile-up, while his family cowers, mortified, and the aristocrats leer their snooty faces at the convertible, in a brilliant slow-motion sequence. Things become ever less clear beyond that. We shortly flash forward to present day, a hospital scene where Blake Morrison (Firth) receives the news that his father has only months to live. Next, we see Blake as an eight year old. After that, it's present day, no wait, it's puberty. . .ahhh, crud. The effect of all the bouncing around is a film that is episodic, but without a satisfying or defined structure.

Trying to please the details of the book, no doubt, these script jumps—from the family home to constant flashbacks—leave us underwhelmed, as they settle too comfortably on the 14 year old Blake (Matthew Beard), who, like all teenage boys is just trying to deal with his raging hormones and pimple-popping. The film only gives itself 92 minutes to fill out a life's stories, and so it all seems stuck in adolescent angst: questions about an affair, complete and total embarrassment at the hands of the dad (whose nickname for his kid is "Fathead")—but too much of it seems par for the course. . . the course of growing man-hair.

Few of us want to recall the mistakes we made as teenagers, but this movie wrangles them all, and asks us to sit through them. A little more levity and perspective would have been a wise addition. This is a film about regrets, and while some solid performances won't exactly make you regret going to see it, we expected a little more catharsis for our buck.

When Did You Last See Your Father? opens tonight at the Regal Arbor. [Showtimes]