Film

Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more

 

My Life So Far (1999)

Director: Hugh Hudson

Average user rating
1 review

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

David Puttnam's production signs off with an ill-advised flourish, a biographical notation to the effect that young Fraser, our pubescent hero, grew up to become a TV executive and serve on the board of the English National Opera. As CVs go, it's not exactly Olympic Gold medal material - especially as the preceding 90 minutes or so leave us in no doubt that the lad grew up in the most privileged surroundings in the Scottish Highlands. Still, if you can stomach a boy who clings to the skirts of 'Mumsy' and 'Gramma' to protect him from 'The Hairy Man' (a shell-shocked tramp), Sir Denis Forman's memoir serves well enough as the basis for a gently nostalgic coming-of-age story with a tourist-friendly 1920s setting. It centres on Fraser's relationship with his dad (Firth), an inventor who takes special pride in his spagnum moss, thinks Louis Armstrong plays the devil's music, and loses face when he becomes besotted with exotic Aunt Heloise (Jacob). This all causes great suffering to Mumsy, but at least affords Mastrantonio a couple of strong emotional scenes and relieves us momentarily from Fraser's not terribly exciting adventures in the library. Lasse Hallström might have dug out the human comedy in it, but director Hudson only manages to cloy.

Author: TCh 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide


  • Print this page
  • Send to a friend

User reviews of this film

  • Mary said...
    Posted on Jun 02 2008 16:20 That is an exelent movie, and Robert Norman in the cutest boy I have ever seen.
    Report as inappropriate

What do you think?
Post your review now

clear rating
Min 1 star. Zero stars will be treated as unrated.

*mandatory fields





Features

Making a name for himself

Making a name for himself

Sin Nombre's Cary Joji Fukunaga learned his lessons well.

To the letter

Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.

Mind over matter

David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.

Fool's gold

Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.

We are the championed

Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."

A history of violence

Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.

True romantic

James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.

Playing in the dark

MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.

Junk bonds

Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.