My Life So Far
USA/UK 1998
Reviewed by Edward Lawrenson
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
Argyll, Scotland, 1920. Twelve-year-old Fraser Pettigrew lives with his parents (Moira and Edward) and two siblings on Kiloran estate, owned by Moira's mother Gamma Macintosh. Moira's brother Morris - who disapproves of Edward - introduces the family to his 24-year-old French bride Heloise. Edward is attracted to Heloise and forces himself on her in one of the estate's outhouses.
Fraser devours Gamma's dead husband's library of sexually explicit literature, stored in the attic. Morris and Heloise return from their travels. At a curling contest on a frozen lake, the ice under Gamma's feet gives way; she dies from pneumonia weeks later. Edward inherits the estate and boasts to Morris that he slept with Heloise. They fight, confirming Moira's suspicion that Edward has been unfaithful. Morris and Heloise leave. Moira reluctantly forgives Edward. With the family reconciled, Fraser is sent away to boarding school.
Review
It's not long into My Life So Far that alarm bells will start sounding for anyone even vaguely familiar with the sad old bag of clichés film-makers have tended to delve into when making movies about Scotland. The moment comes when dashing French pilot Gabriel lands his aeroplane in the grounds of Kiloran estate, takes in the gorgeous Argyll landscape and comments, "I seem to have landed in Shangri La." Portraying Kiloran very much as a timeless idyll, My Life So Far proves the ghost of Brigadoon just won't go to rest, no matter how hard cultural theorists might try to exorcise it.
Apart from airing a pretty dusty line in comedy Scots (the drunken minister; the abstemious housekeeper who keeps the cooking sherry under lock and key), director Hugh Hudson ends up with a film embarrassingly patrician in outlook by falling back on this cheerily bucolic vision of Scotland. The servants (played by such fine Scots actors as Jimmy Logan) are gossipy, good-hearted folk, earthy types (Andrew knows a lot about geology) if not vaguely pantheistic (the old servant Tom namechecks Greek mythology in a pep talk with Fraser). It's clear the Macintosh family have the best interests of these people at heart: raising money for unemployed miners, treating the downstairs staff with friendly respect, setting great store in their stewardship of the land, Gamma the Macintosh matriarch and her extended family exude benevolent authority and kindly concern. Like BBC1's unspeakably naff series The Monarch of the Glen, My Life So Far plays like a subtle endorsement of the (largely inept) private ownership of vast tracts of rural land in Scotland. When Gamma orders Edward to stop using explosives for one of his harebrained land-development schemes, she explains that the noise bothers the sheep. This might cause a rather wry reflection on the role her ancestors had in the Highland clearances (where tenant farmers were turfed off their land to make way for woolly livestock), but any irony here is surely unintended.
Not that My Life So Far is visually unimpressive (French cinematographer Bernard Lutic's camerawork is outstanding), but the picture-postcard aesthetics gloss over a darker, more interesting film. Fraser's father Edward - childish, jealous, dogmatic - is clearly a flawed, if not unsuitable parent. But as portrayed by Colin Firth, he's no more than a loveable eccentric, the kind of playful patriarch who used to turn up in those cute and cloying movies produced by the Children's Film Foundation. In a film devoid of dramatic incident, his unwelcome advances towards his sister-in-law Heloise spark off a major crisis, but the question of whether he raped or not is skirted over, cited obliquely in terms of a family disgrace, much as it would be in a Victorian family melodrama. There are some delicate and lively touches - Fraser's unknowingly crude language during the hushed civility of a dinner party; Malcolm McDowell's caddish portrayal of Morris - but for the most part My Life So Far is a hard slog, like trudging shin-deep through heather on a pointless albeit very pretty Highland excursion.
Credits
- Director
- Hugh Hudson
- Producers
- David Puttnam
- Steve Norris
- Screenplay
- Simon Donald
- Based on the book Son of Adam by
- Sir Denis Forman
- Director of Photography
- Bernard Lutic
- Editor
- Scott Thomas
- Production Designer
- Andy Harris
- Music
- Howard Blake
- ©Miramax Film Corp.
- Production Companies
- Miramax International presents in association with The Scottish Arts Council Lottery Fund an Enigma production in association with Hudson Film
- Filmed by Enigma (Moss) Ltd with the participation of Scottish Screen
- Executive Producers
- Harvey Weinstein
- Bob Weinstein
- Paul Webster
- Co-producer
- Nigel Goldsack
- Production Executive
- Iain York
- Production Co-ordinator
- Rachel Kinnock
- Production Manager
- Andrew Barratt
- Unit Manager
- Janet Riddoch
- Location Manager
- Graeme Gordon
- Post-production Supervisor
- Stephen Barker
- Assistant Directors
- Bill Westley
- Mark Layton
- Toby Hosking
- Script Supervisor
- Libbie Barr
- Casting Director
- Patsy Pollock
- Script Editor
- Jane Wittekind
- Script Consultant
- Colin Vaines
- Aerial Cameraman
- Adam Dale
- Camera Operator
- David Worley
- Camera/Steadicam Operator
- Alastair Rae
- Special Visual Effects
- Mill Film Ltd (London)
- Special Effects
- Effects Associates
- Assembly Editor
- Christopher Lloyd
- Art Directors
- John Frankish
- Extra Shooting:
- John Bunker
- Inventions:
- Alain Chennaux
- Set Decorators
- Gillie Delap
- Inventions:
- Ann Mollo
- Storyboard Artist
- Billy O'Brian
- Costume Designer
- Emma Porteous
- Wardrobe Supervisor
- Cynthea Dowling
- Hair/Make-up Supervisor
- Caroline Noble
- Title Design
- Richard Morrison
- Optical Effects
- Peter Govey Opticals
- Translite Photography
- Stilled Movie
- Alan White
- Cellist Recording
- Wendy Wetherby
- Concertina Player
- Simon Thoumire
- Pianist
- David Harrod
- Solo Violin
- Andrew Haveron
- Musical Director
- Harry Rabinowitz
- Music Supervisor
- Bob Last
- Musical Associate
- John Wilson
- Recording Engineer
- Mike Ross
- Music Consultant
- Nicholas Kraemer
- Soundtrack
- Camille Saint-Saëns' "Le Cygne"; "The Sunny Side of the Street" by Louis Armstrong; Beethoven's "Für Elise" from 5th Symphony Op. 67, Piano Sonata "Appassionata" by Howard Blake; "Doin' the New Lowdown"; "My Love Is Like a Red, Red Rose"; "Edward Sits Alone"
- Sound Supervisor
- Ian Fuller
- Production Sound Mixers
- Ken Weston
- Rudi Buckle
- Re-recording Mixers
- Ray Merrin
- Graham Daniel
- Dialogue Editors
- Brian Blamey
- Gillian Dodders
- Sound Effects Editors
- Colin Chapman
- Derek Lomas
- Nigel Mills
- ADR Editors
- Alan Paley
- Grahame Peters
- Aerial Co-ordinator
- Marc Wolff
- Stunt Co-ordinators
- Paul Weston
- Pat Bailey
- Del Baker
- John McQuillian
- Animals
- Stunt Dogs
- Animal Co-ordinator
- Gilly Raddings
- Filming Helicopter Pilot
- Marc Wolff
- Cast
- Colin Firth
- Edward Pettigrew
- Rosemary Harris
- Gamma Macintosh
- Irène Jacob
- Heloise
- Tchéky Karyo
- Gabriel Chenoux
- Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio
- Moira Pettigrew
- Malcolm McDowell
- Uncle Morris Macintosh
- Kelly MacDonald
- Elspeth Pettigrew
- Robert Norman
- Fraser Pettigrew
- John Bett
- Uncle Crawford
- Freddie Jones
- Reverend Finlayson
- Brendan Gleeson
- Jim Menzies
- Sean Scanlan
- Andrew Burns
- Moray Hunter
- Jim Skelly
- Anne Lacey
- Aunt Eunice
- Jimmy Logan
- Tom Skelly
- Eileen McCallum
- Mrs Henderson
- Clive Russell
- the tramp
- Roddy McDonald
- Rollo
- Daniel Baird
- Finlay
- Jennifer Fergie
- Brenda
- Kirsten Smith
- Meg
- Olivia Preston
- Debs Haig
- Sarah Turner
- Ruth Haig
- Carmen Pieraccini
- Sissie
- Elaine Ellis
- Aggie
- Julie Wilson Nimmo
- Sarah
- Elspeth McNaughton
- Marnie
- Stewart Forrest
- Donald Burns
- Caroline Spencer
- Cassie Burns
- Ralph Riach
- Sir David Drummond
- Andrea Hart
- Lillian
- Terry Neason
- Hector
- Jenni Keenan-Green
- Caroline
- Jenny Foulds
- Frances
- Paul Young
- Doctor Gebbie
- Pamela Kelly
- Euphemia Gebbie
- Eric Barlow
- miner
- Gordon McCorkell
- young miner
- Neil McMenemy
- miner's son
- Lorenzo Boni
- baby Fraser
- Robyn Cochrane
- baby Brenda
- Ross Anderson
- young Rollo
- Joanne Turner
- young Debs Haig
- Nicole O'Neill
- young Elspeth
- Victoria Campbell
- young Meg
- George Knight
- old gardener
- Certificate
- 12
- Distributor
- Buena Vista International (UK)
- 8,860 feet
- 98 minutes 27 seconds
- Dolby Digital
- Colour by
- Technicolor