MORE than ever, in movies, small is beautiful. The blockbusters keep spewing out their predictable fare of frenzied action, unbounded violence, and heaving nudity; their success is not to their credit, merely to the debit of dumbed-down audiences. That is where charming small films come in as rescuers: Enchanted April or Tea With Mussolini, A Walk on the Moon or the much tougher Dreamlife of Angels. Now comes My Life So Far, a notch or two below, but still delightful and heartily recommendable.
The film is based on a section of Son of Adam, the childhood memoir of Sir Denis Forman, television executive and Royal Opera bigwig. The very setting is a winner: the home of the Pettigrews, Kiloran House, at Loch Fyne in the Scottish Highlands. The house is a cheeky blend of medieval castle and Edwardian mansion; its attics harbor legendary demons; in the woods bordering its lawns, the Hairy Man is roaming. Missing only is a monster in the loch.
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