Owen Gleiberman on "When Did You Last See Your Father?"

From Entertainment Weekly:

When Did You Last See Your Father? is a wistful miniature of a movie, yet it creates a provocative balance in the viewer. The director, Anand Tucker (Shopgirl), lines up the audience to be on Blake's side. In every frame, though, Broadbent captures how Arthur, this monumentally imperfect man, exudes love in his very flaws. Firth's Blake, coming to terms with that ambivalence as he holds Arthur's ravaged body in his arms, is perhaps a little too closed off in a rote stiff-upper-lip way. Yet by the end, we see what he's holding back. When Did You Last See Your Father? taps into the conflicting feelings so many of us can have about parents who haunt us because they're difficult, which is part of what makes them irreplaceable.

Click here to read the full review.

Gleiberman's review perfectly sums up my feelings about this film. Of the EW critics, I've always preferred Lisa Schwartzbaum because I tend to agree with her more, and I enjoy her style. But here Gleiberman does a fantastic job of capturing the film's familiar yet comforting tone, and it's heartbreaking universal story.

When Did You Last See Your Father? may not be groundbreaking filmmaking, but it is deeply personal and powerfully moving. Tucker hits all the right notes, and it's a film that deserves a wide audience. Click here to read my original review.