My Life So Far

Starring:Colin Firth, Rosemary Harris, IrÃ¨ne Jacob, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Malcolm McDowell, Robert Norman, TchÃ©ky Karyo, Kelly Macdonald, Roddy McDonald, Daniel Baird, Jennifer Fergie, Kirsten Smith (III), Sean Scanlan, John Bett, Anne Lacey, Olivia Preston, Sarah Turner, Moray Hunter, Jimmy Logan, Brendan Gleeson
Director: Hugh Hudson
Studio: Miramax
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
If pretty pictures and sweet intentions were enough to generate a classic family film, My Life So Far would rival How Green Was My Valley and George Cukor's Little Women. But those movies have strength and an acute sense of loss along with the sweetness and light, while--despite a death or two and the teasing prospect of adultery--My Life So Far doesn't really engage anything that would disrupt its rosy childhood memoir.

First-person narrator Fraser Pettigrew (Robert Norman) is age 10 in 1920, a moment when it seems that the charmed life of Kiloran, the rambling Scottish estate he shares with several generations of his relentlessly quaint family, will go on forever. Even a stray shellshock casualty from the Great War--a sub-Dickensian bogeyman who haunts the grounds--is treated as a picturesque bit of local color. The family is what counts: would-be inventor Colin Firth, eccentric paterfamilias and sphagnum moss farmer; his wife Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, who traded an opera career for multiple maternity; crusty uncle Malcolm McDowell, who hopes to inherit Kiloran from matriarch Rosemary Harris and evict everybody; and IrÃ¨ne Jacob, the beauteous young Frenchwoman to whom the uncle is engaged and over whom everyone else goes gaga. Not to mention a gaggle of precocious siblings, colorful servants, and oddball interlopers.

Amazon.com

If pretty pictures and sweet intentions were enough to generate a classic family film, My Life So Far would rival How Green Was My Valley and George Cukor's Little Women. But those movies have strength and an acute sense of loss along with the sweetness and light, while--despite a death or two and the teasing prospect of adultery--My Life So Far doesn't really engage anything that would disrupt its rosy childhood memoir.

First-person narrator Fraser Pettigrew (Robert Norman) is age 10 in 1920, a moment when it seems that the charmed life of Kiloran, the rambling Scottish estate he shares with several generations of his relentlessly quaint family, will go on forever. Even a stray shellshock casualty from the Great War--a sub-Dickensian bogeyman who haunts the grounds--is treated as a picturesque bit of local color. The family is what counts: would-be inventor Colin Firth, eccentric paterfamilias and sphagnum moss farmer; his wife Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, who traded an opera career for multiple maternity; crusty uncle Malcolm McDowell, who hopes to inherit Kiloran from matriarch Rosemary Harris and evict everybody; and Irène Jacob, the beauteous young Frenchwoman to whom the uncle is engaged and over whom everyone else goes gaga. Not to mention a gaggle of precocious siblings, colorful servants, and oddball interlopers.

This is all very slight, but amiable--sort of a Miramax dry run for The Cider House Rules without the darkness or the novelistic vision. The lakes, skies, and knobby hills around Argyll, Scotland, are unexceptionably gorgeous. --Richard T. Jameson

Description

Colin Firth (BRIDGET JONES'S DIARY), Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio (LIMBO), and Malcolm McDowell (MR. MAGOO) star in this delightfully charming comedy about the fun and awkwardness of growing up! Young Fraser Pettigrew has always been an adventurous child. But with the arrival of his sexy French aunt Heloise (Irene Jacob -- U.S. MARSHALS), Fraser enters a truly eye-opening summer of discovery as he learns some delicious truths about adulthood and the comic eccentricities of his loving family! Also featuring Rosemary Harris (HAMLET), the great ensemble cast lights up the screen. Come join the Pettigrews as their lives are forever changed in one unforgettable season!

Customer Reviews:

My Life So Far.......2006-08-26

I enjoyed the film very much. I found it amusing & delightful about an inquisitive, precocious youngster. A few of us found out about life this way. Some parents had a difficult time explaining our questions. Some may have done what gorgeous Colin Firth, the father did if they had the opportunity. I will definitely watch it again.

Entertaining story, lots of Firth!.......2005-06-21

Set in the 1920s, this film is enjoyable and charming while also touching on some of the darker aspects of growing up. Told through the eyes of a young boy, the actions of the adults seem even sillier and more laughter-provoking. However, this is no straight comedy. It touches on themes of marital discord, puberty (never fun) and ultimately, the "meaning of life."

The scenery is beautiful and Colin Firth is gorgeous in an atypical role as an inventor. His character is not all sweetness and light and that makes him more interesting. Firth fans, please take note of the fact that he appears in almost every bit of the film. It's fun to see him in the role of an eccentric dad (although you know you're getting older when you lust after the actor in the film that plays the father!)

Great acting, charming story and ultimately an uplifting film.

My Life So Far-- Has Been Boring..........2005-02-21

I orginally bought this film and I'm assuming you want to buy this film because it has Colin Firth in it... as a Colin Firth fan I found this movie boring and lacking what Colin usually gives us in his films.

In this one Colin is an inventor with a rather large family including a young rambunctious son who enjoys wandering around the estate causing havoic and looking at pictures of nude paintings. What seems to be the happy family is shattered when Colin's brother brings his have his age french fiance Heloise who he becomes infatuated with-- eventually one day in his factory room he tries to force himself upon her... eventually, his wife learns what has been going on and blows up at her mother's funeral. The movie ends with a reconciliation. The movie takes place through the view of Colin's young son-- focusing more on himself and the events he takes in around him.

All in all I found this movie rather dull and it's not the kind of movie Colin was made for... For really what woman wants to see Colin playing an adulterer? All in all buy Love Actually or Bridget Jones Diary watch Colin charm you in a movie you'll enjoy...

An underrated film.......2004-08-01

This movie will appeal to anyone who enjoys watching movies about large sprawling families, oddball characters, and little slice-of-life episodes. It's the 1920s and Fraser Pettigrew is 10 years old. He lives with a swarm of siblings, a devoted mother, a kindly grandmother, and an eccentric father who invents odd gadgets and invests in strange things (such as sphagnum moss). Things get even more mixed-up when Fraser's uncle arrives. Not only does the uncle treat Fraser's father with a kind of affectionate contempt, he has brought along a much younger fiancee - a sweet and musical Frenchwoman. Fraser, who is becoming curious about sex, and is only just seeing that his father is not infallible, is shocked when he notices that his father pays a great deal of attention to his uncle's fiancee. A rift in the family looks imminent, particularly when Fraser's mother discovers that her husband desires another woman.

In all, My Life So Far is a sweet coming of age story with some troubling episodes, as when Fraser's father childishly competes with him for attention from the Frenchwoman (who, unlike in other movies, is not a home-wrecking siren, but is actually a good woman who is faithful to her fiance). The movie treats the complexities of family life and childhood with humor and care. The visuals are also beautiful - the Scottish countryside does not disappoint - and there are other scenes that linger in the mind (a tender dance in the rain, for example). Really, this is a great movie for a quiet evening at home, snuggled under blankets.

"Jazz is the sound of the devil sniggering at our follies".......2004-07-16

Director: Hugh Hudson
Format: Color
Studio: Miramax Home Entertainment
Video Release Date: June 3, 2003

Cast:

Robert Norman
Colin Firth
Nary Elizabeth Mastrantonio
Malcolm McDowell
Irene Jacob
Rosemary Harris

Set circa 1920, when Fraser Pettigrew (Robert Norman) is a 10-year-old the story centers around his childhood memories of his eccentric inventor father, his mother who gave up a stage career to raise a family, and an uncle who came to the family estate in Scotland with his 24-year-old French fiance.

It is a family centered, biographical story--a memoir--of a child who is curious about artwork depicting naked ladies and his grandfather's "secret" library. Also involved is the conflict between his father who is reaping sphegnum moss from the family estate for a variety of products, and his uncle who thinks his father's ventures are folly. Uncle Malcolm hopes to inherit the estate from the grandmother and throw everyone else off the place and market the lumber.

There is an interesting story here, but not a thriller or murder mystery. It is what it purports to be a story of a youngster's early life.

Joseph (Joe) Pierre

author of Handguns and Freedom...their care and maintenance
and other books

Charlie Rose with Fouad Ajami, Robin Wright & Shaul Bakhash; Andrew Cuomo; David Puttnam (July 14, 1999)
Average customer rating:
Charlie Rose with Fouad Ajami, Robin Wright & Shaul Bakhash; Andrew Cuomo; David Puttnam (July 14, 1999)

Manufacturer: Charlie Rose
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

( C ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
All Titles | Charlie Rose Store | Television | Genres | DVD | Video
ASIN: B000IU32KC
Release Date: 2006-09-18

Description

A conversation about the ongoing student protests in Iran and President Mohammad Khatami's leadership with Robin Wright of The Los Angeles Times, Shaul Bakhash of George Mason University, and Fouad Ajami of U.S. News & World Report. The, an interview with the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Andrew Cuomo, on the Clinton administration's efforts to reduce poverty. Last, film producer Lord David Puttnam speaks about his new movie, My Life So Far. Puttnam also discusses the importance of education and why this film is to be his last.

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