The movie expresses the complex, manifold emotional layers of a father-and-son relationship as it shifts and evolves over the passing decades, and particularly, it tells the story of a son's conflicting memories of his dying father.
It's Broadbent's movie, and he really does go from one-foot-in-the-grave to youthful and crackling-with-charisma on a dime. It's not so much that he does it, but that it seems so effortless and non-ostentatious.
Strong performances carry this familiar but always intelligent British rites-of-passage story about a philandering doctor and his much-mocked son.
NewsBlaze
November 01, 2008
A keen and candid subjective scrutiny of parenting through the eyes of a damaged offspring, but a relentlessly grim, insular perspective that rarely ventures outside those long festering psychological wounds.
A small, intimate film with numerous flashbacks like this one is trickier than it looks, but ultimately it touches the heart and proves a worthwhile journey perfectly timed for Father's Day.
