MY LIFE SO FAR
Reviewed by Harvey Karten, Ph.D. Miramax Films Director: Hugh Hudson Writer: Simon Donald, book "Son of Adam" by Sir Denis Forman Cast: Colin Firth, Rosemary Harris, Irene Jacob, Tcheky Karyo, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Malcolm McDowell, Kelly MacDonald
Coming-of-age movies in America of late lean toward the grotesque and cynical. Alexander Payne's "Election," for example, has no role models you'd want to emulate, centering on a young woman whose driving ambition serves as pretext to gain affection--which she never does win. Horror stories like "Scream" and its sequel are tongue-in- cheek, good for laughs, but have no confidence in audience sentimentality. The Europeans treat the genre no differently. Agnieszka Holland's "Europa Europa," a dazzler when introduced in 1991, portrays a German-Jewish teen who must conceal his identity only to find himself drafted into Hitler's army.
Things weren't always this way. For all his melancholy, Eugene O'Neill turned out a resplendent comedy about the kind of childhood he wished he had. His "Ah! Wilderness!", which hit the stage right in the middle of the Great Depression, portrays a 17-year-old boy who passes from adolescence to manhood during a two-day crisis when his girl friend's folks break off his relationship with their daughter, leading Richard into a hilarious night of drinking with a tart in a local bar.
Perhaps "My Life So Far," based on the autobiography of renowned British TV producer Sir Denis Forman, will break the current mold. With childhood portrayed so frequently as a time of sturm und drang, how refreshing to watch a movie which avoids treacle while simultaneously portraying a kid whose family life is deliriously happy! At the center of the tale--which is engagingly told and photographed handsomely amid the wonderful greenery of the Scottish countryside--is the adorable, outgoing Fraser (Robert Norman), whose emotional health remains firm despite the idiosyncrasies he observes daily around him.
Fraser has been born into a wealthy family living on a lush estate owned by the aging Gamma (Rosemary Harris). The manor has a full staff of enthusiastic maids, a veritable menagerie of dogs ranging from a wee West Highland White to an enormous Scottish Deerhound, and best of all is headed by daddy Edward (Colin Firth) whose inventions are themselves like the punch lines of shaggy dog stories. Married to the relatively colorless Moira (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), Edward springs to amorous life when his millionaire brother Morris (Malcolm McDowell) introduces the family to his new, 24-year-old French fiance, Heloise (Irene Jacob). If young Fraser Pettigrew displays innocence of the birds and bees, puzzling in his home library over mythological accounts of lesbians, prostitutes and orgies, he is about to lose his naivete under the influence of this pert, perky, cellist- -with whom the entire manor seems to have fallen in love.
Filmed on location in lovely Argyll, Scotland, "My Life So Far" may not portray the sort of opulent backdrop that constituted the environment of most movie viewers , but anyone with a modicum of sensibility will be caught up in this appealing kid's experiences with the adult world, seen through his perceptive vision and intelligent mind. Though his father has has his flaws, albeit the sort of blemishes that any red-blooded Scot might be expected to possess, his is the sort of dad we all wish we'd had. He takes the boy fishing, introduces him to an adventurous pilot known as the emperor of the sky, imbues him with lectures about moral fiber ("Beethoven is God talking in his sleep; jazz is the devil"), never punishes the lad, and seems never to have need to do so. All in the movie audience whose creative side dominates their brains (presumably the kind for whom movies should appeal the most) will cheer Edward's inventive genius, however impractical, as he invests his time and wealth into the development of a plant herb as a cure for disease while his more pragmatic brother, Morris, belittles the man's quixoticism.
Director Hugh Hudson devotes considerable time to close- ups of this wonderful man's expressions, each of which tells a story about his feelings at the time, particularly envy of his boorish brother's good luck in catching the gifted Heloise. At once the most poignant and comical scenes are of the 10- year-old boy's struggle to understand the passages he reads in the books about the Greeks, with a classic episode of a stuttering father faced with the inevitable queries about the pleasures of the flesh. There are wonderful episodes displaying the close relationship that young Fraser enjoys with the bevy of servants, including his daily ritual of pouring tea for each of them in the kitchen. The frighteningly competent assortment of acting talent from the formidable stage actress Rosemary Harris to Robert Norman in his first professional role adds to the evocation of rural Scotland during the last twenties and early thirties.
Rated PG-13. Running Time: 90 minutes. (C) 1999 Harvey Karten
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