I'm giving away nothing but a promise of pleasure when I tell you that  "My 
 Life So Far" ends in a Scottish castle with a 10-year-old boy smoking a  cigar 
 and swirling a stiff slug of milk in a brandy snifter as he listens to a  record 
 of Louis Armstrong's "On the Sunny Side of the Street" on a Victrola. The 
 song  and the scene make a perfect coda for a movie that leaves you feeling 
 expansively happy. 

   Hugh Hudson, who is best known in his life so far for "Chariots of Fire,"  has 
 directed this coming-of-age story set in Scotland between the World Wars. 
 The  boy, Fraser, is played by Robbie Norman, an Edinburgh schoolboy with no 
 previous  acting experience -- the kid's a natural if ever there was one -- and a 
 sweet,  soft face manifestly ready to be molded by experience. That's what 
 coming-of-age  stories are all about, new experience that transforms a young 
person's world  view, and "My Life So Far" is a fine example of the genre. 
(Simon Donald  adapted  the script from an autobiography by the British TV  
executive Sir Dennis  Forman.  Bernard Lutic did the lovely cinematography.) 
   
Fraser lives on an estate in the midst of a family that includes his grandmother, 
Gamma (Rosemary Harris), his mother, Moira (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), and, 
on occasion, his rich uncle Morris (Malcolm McDowell),  an  affable semi-Scrooge 
who's engaged to Heloise, a bewitching young  Frenchwoman  played, bewitchingly, 
by Irene Jacob. At the center of Fraser's world is his  father, Edward (Colin Firth), an 
extravagant eccentric who loves Beethoven,  hates jazz and runs the only moss factory 
in Europe. (During World War I  sphagnum moss saved soldiers' lives with its medicinal 
properties.) Fraser  worships his daft dad blindly, but Edward finally reveals himself as  
woefully  human -- unchained lust gives him away -- and Fraser learns, from forbidden  books 
and thrilling encounters with Heloise, what makes the world go round.  It's  wrenching to watch a 
father become a fallen idol. In my book, though, any  man  who dislikes Louis Armstrong is 
suspect from the start. 

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.