Starring Colin Firth and Jim Broadbent. Rated PG. Opens Friday, June 13, at the Fifth Avenue Cinemas

Not to be confused with The Year My Parents Went on Vacation, this English dramedy addresses the way your folks never go on hiatus, at least psychically speaking.

Based on a 1993 memoir by poet Blake Morrison, And When Did You Last See Your Father? features Colin Firth as the adult Blake. In the time-jumping tale, two lesser-knowns play him as a boy (Bradley Johnson) in the late 1950s and a teenager (Matthew Beard) in the mid-’60s.

In all cases, the dad in question is embodied by the great Jim Broadbent, who throws everything he has into the role. It’s a lot, and it needs to be. A compulsively sociable country doctor, Arthur Morrison is one of those charming monsters who delight everyone except for those who actually have to live with them. His wife (Juliet Stevenson) tolerates the oft-repeated jokes and broader hints of indiscretion. But it’s a nonstop hell for Blake, who can’t assert an iota of personality with the old man around.

As a grownup, married to an increasingly frustrated woman (Gina McKee), he must unstiffen his upper lip long enough to forgive his father when the seemingly indomitable force of nature gets cancer, and probably won’t be living forever, after all. In flashbacks, we see the boy’s tentative steps toward manhood, partially through interactions with a feisty Scottish nanny (Elaine Cassidy) and a girl he meets on vacation (Carey Mulligan).

This is funny stuff, in a painful sort of way, but at a certain point you have to wonder how much guilt Arthur really has to bear, given Blake’s sourpuss demeanour—especially as played by Firth, who usually leavens his oh-so-British anxiety with large amounts of suave self-deprecation.

Written by David Nicholls and directed by Anand Tucker, who also made Shopgirl and the excessively style-laden Hilary and Jackie, the good-looking film is satisfying if slightly too dependent on technical gimmicks and gotcha moments intended to make rather ordinary events seem bigger than life. No need: mom and dad are generally large enough as it is, thanks.