And When Did You Last See Your Father? review

There’s a lot of emotion sloshing around Anand Tucker’s movie. How could there not be? After all, it’s the story of a son (Colin Firth) coming to terms with the fact that his dad (Jim Broadbent) is dying. There’s guilt, sadness, anger, pain… all the big stuff. Yet, scripted by former Cold Feet scribbler David Nicholls, it feels like just another classy soap opera, a collection of off-the-peg confrontations, crying fits and revelations. Firth makes a solid fictionalised version of poet Blake Morrison, on whose memoir this is based, while Broadbent revels in his blustery, expansive role. Trouble is, just as Blake struggles to work out what makes his father tick, so too do the filmmakers. The original book’s raw honesty left you breathless; this polished adaptation might make you sigh, but it leaves the tear-ducts dry.