"A-" Rating by Robert W. Hammerle

"When Did You Last See Your Father" is, next to "The Visitor," the best movie that has been released this year. (I saw it in New York, as it has yet to make it here.) It is an evocative drama about the complexities surrounding a father-son relationship, and it defines the very essence of quality filmmaking.

The incomparable Jim Broadbent gives another stunning performance as a father who dominates the life of his physician wife (Juliet Stevenson) and their two children. Broadbent's character, also a doctor, is a marvelously flawed human being. He is the type of man who sucks the oxygen out of a room the moment he enters.

While his loving wife silently suffers his excesses, Colin Firth is quietly powerful as an adult son who is trying to come to grips with his conflicted relationship with a father who is dying of cancer.

Told in a series of flashbacks that takes Firth back to his youth while frequently returning to the present, he reflects on a life with a father that he has loved, hated, resented and admired. Now married himself with two small children, he longs to resolve his bottled-up feelings caused by his father's callous insults and infidelities. Among his anxieties are profound feelings of inadequacy resulting from his profession as a writer, something his father deemed unworthy of his talents.

Broadbent, not surprisingly, is captivating as a larger than life father who is oblivious to the occasional pain he has caused his family by his caddish womanizing and his selfish, petty insults. This is another in a long series of memorable performances that stand up to any actor appearing in film today. Think about the following:

(1) His hysterical detective in the equally hysterical "Hot Fuzz" (2007);

(2) His possessed Lord Kelvin in the underrated remake of "Around the World in 80 Days" (2004);

(3) His heartbreaking turn as the husband of the Oscar nominated Imelda Staunton in the powerful "Vera Drake" (2004);

(4) His totally convincing "Boss" Tweed in "Gangs of New York" (2002);

(5) His turn as Wackford Squeers in the entertaining "Nicholas Nickleby" (2002);

(6) Another heartbreaking turn as the caring husband of Judi Dench in "Iris" (2001);

(7) His memorable role as Zidler, the nightclub impresario in the fabulous "Moulin Rouge" (2001);

(8) His role as Frederick Arbuthnot, the old lover who learns to love again in the enchanting "Enchanted April" (1991).

And that's just naming a few of his roles. As a character actor, Broadbent has no peers.

Additionally, this movie taps into the inner psyche of all males and our relationships with our fathers. Every human being is a collection of our own imperfections, and a boy's adult life is hugely influenced by the role his father has played in it.

For those of you who have lost your fathers, as I have, this movie forces us to reflect on when we indeed did last see our dads. For me, it was when he was sitting in his favorite chair at home, one week before dying of a massive stroke at the age of 78. His body having gradually broken down while his mind remained sound, I bent down and hugged him as he whispered, "Dammit, Bobby, this is no way to go through life!" We both laughed as I told him, "I know, dad, I know."

The truth is that most fathers are part rogue, part rascal and part saint. Love them while they're here.

(SPOILER ALERT)

This movie ends with Firth remembering a moment with his father as he left for college. The movie flashes to Broadbent hugging his 18 year old son saying with tears in his eyes, "I'll miss you, son." The camera then turns to the adult Firth after his father's funeral, where he is standing in a driveway crying while saying, "I'll miss you too, dad." I left the theater with tears in my eyes.