My Life So Far (1999)

Entertainment Weekly
"...Considerable charm..." -- Rating: B 01/21/2000 pp.110-1

Sight and Sound
"...Bernard Lutic's camerawork is outstanding..." 06/01/2000 p.48-9

New York Times
"...The film is peppered with small, colorful incidents....What gives the film the flow of a good novel is its consistency of tone..." 06/23/1999 p.E22

Box Office
"...It succeeds admirably. The evocation of both period and perspective seems effortless, and there's a masterful balance throughout between real emotion and genuine humor..." 10/01/1999 p.61

Los Angeles Times
"...[A] sumptuous film....Directed with verve and subtlety by Hudson....MY LIFE SO FAR recaptures a vanished way of life..." 07/23/1999 p.C18

Boxoffice Magazine 9 of 10
Based on Sir Denis Forman's memoir, Son of Adam, My Life So Far is a gentle but trenchant period piece set in Scotland during that idyllic "long weekend" between the two world wars. Ten-year-old Fraser Pettigrew (Robert Norman) narrates not only the story of his own childhood but the story of his family and the quiet emotional chaos that erupts when Uncle Morris (Malcolm McDowell) brings his French fiancŽe Heloise (Irene Jacob) to the family estate. That Heloise is less than half Morris's age, not to mention vivacious and beautiful, escapes no one's notice, especially Fraser's inventor father, Edward (Colin Firth), and his patient mother (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio)... The film is modest in its ambitions, but in what it's trying to accomplish, it succeeds admirably. The evocation of both period and perspective seems effortless, and there's a masterful balance throughout between real emotion and genuine humor. Though sweet and charming, the tone never crosses the line into cloying mawkishness. This is a credit to the whimsical, knowing script, the clarity of the direction, and the expertise of the actors. There's not an inauthentic performance in the ensemble, and while Norman is smartly beguiling as our ostensible protagonist, the true stand-out is Firth. It's really his story, but Firth never hogs the screen. He plays Edward with such subtlety and yet such precision that he's able to reveal Edward's feelings completely while actually saying very little on the surface. Indeed, the whole film works this way: understated yet utterly lucid. As a result, it's as poignant as it is pleasurable. - L.J. Strom
 
The Boston Phoenix 8 of 10
By the titles of their memoirs you will know them. The subject of Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man will become James Joyce; the author of My Life So Far (originally titled Son of Adam) will grow up to be Sir Denis Forman, a British television executive. Joyce is a genius; Forman is not -- yet Hugh Hudson's adaptation of Forman's book enlightens and entertains as long as it adheres to the casual, inchoate, eccentric spirit suggested by its title. Here Forman has been rechristened Fraser Pettigrew (Robert Norman), the scion of Kiloran House, which is owned by his grandmother Gamma (Rosemary Harris) and ruled by Gamma and her daughter Moira (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio). The uncertain interloper in this post-World War I Scottish Elysium is Fraser's beloved father, Edward (Colin Firth), who has taken the rolling-stone proverb to heart and turned the estate into the world's only supplier of sphagnum moss. That and his penchant for Beethoven, flying machines, and cold outdoor baths mark Edward as a free spirit... He spends his spare time preaching Non-Conformist fire and brimstone -- until Moira's dapper millionaire brother Morris (Malcolm McDowell) shows up with his young French bride, HŽlo•se (Irene Jacob). Ostensibly told from Fraser's point of view, this morality tale of desire, propriety, covetousness, and hypocrisy is most telling when Hudson keeps it at a distance (a final confrontation is jarring and distasteful), allowing Norman's carrot-topped curiosity and insouciance to take charge... My Life So Far is satisfying as far as it goes. - Peter Keough