How can two people live their lives together and come away with two completely different ideas of what it was like?
That's an underlying question in Anand Tucker's film, "When Did You Last See Your Father?" based on Blake Morrison's memoir of the same name. The film -- which screened in Milwaukee in July -- is out now on DVD from Sony Pictures Classics.
Of course, it's all a matter of perspective, isn't it? Arthur Morrison (Jim Broadbent) is an English doctor, who can't seem to help little white lies that help make his life a little easier and loves to publicly embarrass his son Blake (Colin Firth, as an adult, Matthew Beard as a teen and Bradley Johnson as a child).
Being on the wrong end of his dad's humor, the bookish Blake is perhaps an especially keen-eyed observer of his father's faults.
The result is a relationship defined much differently by father than by son.
Even though Blake is an award-winning writer, Arthur can't seem to muster the two words his son wants him to say most of all, "well done."
Now that Arthur is seriously ill, Blake reflects on his own life and his relationship with his father and he's fast coming to the realization that he may never hear his father utter these words to him.
Especially interesting -- although not terribly subtle -- is the way Tucker shows Blake keeping a distance from his own children.
Tucker -- who directed Steve Martin in Martin's "Shop Girl" recently -- takes an already touching story and touches it up visually with a range of tricks. The flashbacks are infused with a startling Technicolor explosion of hues that renders those scenes almost mythical and it makes the viewer wonder how much of these memories are clouded by a kind of mental oversaturation.
The mostly interior current-day scenes -- the film is mostly set in 1989 -- are more drab, darker, capturing Blake's internal emotional struggles.
Tucker adores shooting into mirrors, too, and even a mildly aware viewer will see at least a dozen of them scattered throughout the film.
Broadbent is ace as the jolly life of the party, always up for a laugh, but with a cutting side that can slice right through his son. Juliet Stevenson offers an understated portrayal of his wife, a woman that is either a shrinking violet or incredibly strong, we're not entirely sure due to a role that feels sketched in at best.
Firth succeeds in large part because this is the perfect role for him. He's got no trouble dishing up the pensive, troubled, brooding guy.
The DVD includes the theatrical trailer, seven scenes edited from the final cut of the film and commentary by director Tucker.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
