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 PrintableVersion And when did you last see your father?Dads v. LadsAND WHEN DID YOU LAST SEE YOUR FATHER? Not everything about the past was good. Some of us might be nostalgic for 1950s cars and 1960s music, but 1950s dads often left much to be desired. Though they were generally good providers for their families, their relational skills were often minimal. This is the kind of dad recalled by Blake Morrison in this film, which is a true story. The father/son relationship is explored in flashback when the adult Blake (played by Colin Firth) returns home to help with his dying doctor/father (played by Jim Broadbent). We see the father through the eyes of the child who looks upon him as a hero and the adolescent who comes to hate him, and we learn a little about why. The pace of the film is slow. It is reflective. It makes us think how inadequate fallen human beings can be at expressing love and appreciation. Even when the grown up poet Blake receives a prestigious literary award there is still no ‘Well done’ from dad, just a joke about it being made of plastic. As death draws near there is an overwhelming sense of resignation and gloom which is endemic in secularism. The son wanted to talk and put things right. He wanted to find out things he only guessed about his father. But that moment never materialises. Things are left unsaid and all he can remember after his father’s departure is a couple of precious moments. This is a son prone to repeating his father’s sins and unsure of whether he really knew him. A similar film, no doubt, could be made about many families today. It is the tragic legacy, in Ecclesiastes’ terms, of living ‘under the sun’. It contains a few fairly raw scenes, but Christian dads could learn a thing or two from the mistakes exposed in this movie. John Benton© Evangelicals Now - November 2007 |
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