After a lifetime of unanswered questions and simmering resentments, Blake Morrison (Colin Firth) thinks he finally might have time to talk to his once larger-than-life father, Arthur Morrison (Jim Broadbent).

But his dad, weakened by cancer and confined to bed at home, asks for a reprieve. "Not today," Arthur says, when his adult son broaches a heart-to-heart. Today never comes, at least not in the way Blake yearns for, in "When Did You Last See Your Father?," based on the memoir of the same name.

It's a moody, dreamlike movie that glides between Blake as an award-winning writer, husband and father of two, and Blake as an 8-year-old and then awkward, bookish 14-year-old who has none of his father's charm or ease with the ladies.

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'When Did You Last See Your Father?'

3 stars = Good
Ratings explained

• Starring: Colin Firth, Jim Broadbent.
• Rating: PG-13 for sexual content, thematic material and brief strong language.
• Web site: 'When Did You Last See Your Father?'

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Arthur is a general practitioner in the Yorkshire Dales of England, and, as Blake says in the opening narration, "My father could talk his way into and out of anything."

As a boy, Blake thought his dad infallible, invincible, immortal. As a teen, Blake both hates him -- that's what he spits out to the mirror after suspecting his dad of infidelity -- and grudgingly loves him, as father teaches son to drive in unconventional and exhilarating fashion.

"When ..." casts Blake as an outsider or observer, often peering through or framed by windows, doorways or stair spindles and, in one youthful act of impetuosity, climbing a tree to spy on his father at a picnic.

Firth also is frequently posed and photographed near mirrors that bounce Blake's image or split it into thirds, just as his life here is sliced into boy, teen and man. The device also reminds us he is a reflection of his parents and, always, a product of his past.

Director Anand Tucker ("Shopgirl," "Hilary and Jackie"), working from a screenplay by David Nicholls, presents "When ..." as if paging through photo albums, often out of order. Many years pass without mention while incidents such as a camping trip that goes awry are explored in depth.

In that regard, its episodic nature seems designed to drive you to the book, but it is saved by its sublime casting of father and son. Broadbent, an Oscar winner for "Iris," gives Arthur a rascal's charm who cannot see how a dance at a Christmas party mortifies his son and wife, while Firth makes Blake a conflicted introvert who can shrivel or disappear in his father's shadow.

One blunder: Choosing an actress of Juliet Stevenson's age to play the mother, also a doctor. She's fine for the scenes set in the 1950s but, come the 1980s, looks too young to play Firth's mother. Perhaps that's because she is four years older in real life and makeup can age an actress only so much.

Blake's younger sister, Gillian (Claire Skinner), is also given short-shrift, even for a story with a narrow father-son focus. After their father falls ill, she is overheard asking a most telling question about her brother: "When did his lordship arrive?" Nothing like a serious illness to put family friction into sharp relief.

Although "When ..." is hobbled by paring down this rich story to the basics, it's impossible not to be pulled into its emotional orbit. When the tears come, the weeping won't be confined to the screen. So toss a few tissues in your pocket; you will need them.

Opens Friday at the Regent Square Theater, Edgewood.