My Life So Far (1999)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Director:

Hugh Hudson

Writers:

Denis Forman (book)
Simon Donald (screenplay)

Release Date:

26 August 1999 (Singapore)

Genre:

Biography | Comedy | Drama

Tagline:

Imagine a summer in paradise with nothing to do except everything your heart desires.

Plot:

Memoir of the lives of a family growing up on a post World War I British estate headed up by a strong disciplinarian...

Plot Keywords:

Boy | French | Inventor | Servant | Skinny Dipping

Cast

Colin Firth	...	Edward Pettigrew
Rosemary Harris	...	Gamma MacIntosh
Irène Jacob	...	Aunt Heloise (as Irene Jacob)
Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio	...	Moira 'Mumsie' Pettigrew
Malcolm McDowell	...	Uncle Morris MacIntosh
Robert Norman	...	Fraser Pettigrew
Tchéky Karyo	...	Gabriel Chenoux (as Tcheky Karyo)
Kelly Macdonald	...	Elspeth Pettigrew
Roddy McDonald	...	Rollo
Daniel Baird	...	Finlay
Jennifer Fergie	...	Brenda Pettigrew
Kirstin Smith	...	Meg
Sean Scanlan	...	Andrew Burns
John Bett	...	Uncle Crawford
Anne Lacey	...	Aunt Eunice

Also Known As:

World of Moss (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for sexual content, including some nude pictures.

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Iceland:L | Malaysia:U | Canada:PG (Ontario) | Australia:PG | Hong Kong:IIA | Spain:T | UK:12 | USA:PG-13 | Argentina:13 | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Ardkinglas House, Cairndow, Argyll and Bute, Scotland, UK

Company:

Enigma Productions

Quotes:

Fraser Pettigrew: [reading from his father's old book] "Dearest Samuel, Forbidden fruit is always the sweetest. I have many things I would like to teach you, if only we can find the opportunity. The very thought arouses me to lubricious ecstasies"
[beat]
Fraser Pettigrew: Probably a golfing friend.

Soundtrack:

Piano Sonata No.23 in F Minor (Appassionata), Op.57

Delightful family comedy like they "used to make"

I saw My Life So Far at a preview screening and loved it. It's a small, modest movie; don't go expecting "Saving Pvt Ryan." But for what it is it's wonderful--like escaping from a fetid city and diving into a clear cool lake.

It's one of those comedies of family life that both adults and (older) children can enjoy--the kind "they used to make." The ten-year-old narrator doesn't understand a lot of what he sees going on around him (mainly sex), but the audience does. Set in the Scottish highlands in the mid-thirties, it evokes the kind of idyllic life that vanished after the War--a large extended family living in a big ramshackle house on old family property with dogs, servants, neighbors and occasionally an unexpected visitor or two. There's not much story to the film; it's mainly about the rather eccentric characters who inhabit it, and the way they relate to each other.

The ensemble cast of British, French and American actors is perfect. Especially fine is Colin Firth, who plays the narrator's boyish, sexy and definitely oddball father. Every time I see this actor I marvel at how he manages to display so many conflicting emotions and thoughts while seeming never to move a muscle. And he's gorgeous to look upon, too. Rosemary Harris gives one of her typically fine performances as the boy's grandma, and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio manages to do a great deal with rather little as the boy's mother. Malcolm McDowell is the wealthy uncle with the child bride (Irene Jacob) who is everything that Firth isn't. The tension between them is almost palpable and erupts into a fistfight before the film's end. My only reservation about the acting is with Robbie Norman as the kid; he is cute in a freckle-faced way but not very expressive (especially set beside Firth).

All in all, I give this film a 9. There's still something to be said for modesty, humor and charm. I wish there were more films like it.