Cast: Colin Firth (Edward Pettigrew), Robert Norman (Fraser), Irene Jacob (Heloise)
Dir. : Hugh Hudson ("Chariots of Fire" fame)
Action set in Scottish countryside between the two wars. Narrative unfolds from the point of view of a ten year old boy. It's subtle tale of the processes of growth, of the innocence discovering the double-talk and hypocrisy of the adult world.
The ten-year old Fraser begins by idolising his father Edward, but discovers his clay-feet as he goes along. He discovers too the differences between the strict and disciplined world inhabited by his father and liberal universe of the French aunt, Heloise (wife of his uncle Morris). The prohibitions of his father (Jazz, for example; only Bible and Beethoven are allowed in the house) are loosened by the arrival of his aunt. He discovers that the lateral thinking of his scientist father is constricted by the suppressions of the religion. Also, the film takes care to include scenes like the one where the boy's mother demonstrates her untapped potential of a good singer when she sings with Heloise. She tells her French relative that she had auditioned once but nothing came of it. Such details pile up to create and reinforce the impression that we dealing with the restrictive atmosphere of the household. The boy grows when he begins to dislike the triteness of his father's oft repeated "healthy mind in a healthy body." The boy's precocity and eagerness to learn from books his father has hidden away puts on edge his innocence as well as the adult silences. One of the last scenes show the boy listening to tabooed Jazz music from the disc gifted to him by Heloise while smoking--things that were impossible even to imagine earlier in that house--is a measure of his growth. Also, the dramatic confrontation between Edward and his wife over his adulterous fling leaves him losing his moral authority with the boy and perhaps paved the way for his boldness in listening to the Jazz music in the house, albeit in the privacy of his room...So what started as a loving obedient happy relationship of the boy with his father gradually changes into one where there is love, yes, but with little respect and certainly no fear of the father. The film focuses on this gradual change in the boy and everything, the whole setting, the scenes and script appears to be geared to this purpose.
As usual, the tenor of the film resides in the treatment of detail. And it is superbly done.
"Growing up on a post-World War I Scottish estate, 10-year-old Fraser Pettigrew (Robert Norman) narrates the story of his sometimes-eccentric family, which includes a strong-disciplinarian grandmother (Rosemary Harris), mother (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), moss farmer and would-be inventor father (Colin Firth) and older sister. Turmoil ensues when the boy's uncle (Malcolm MacDowell) arrives with his French maid (Irene Jacob)."--Netflix summary
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