`MY LIFE SO FAR' COMES ALIVE WITH GOOD STORYTELLING.

Byline: Stephen Holden The New York Times

``My Life So Far,'' a winsome childhood reverie of family life in Argyll, Scotland, in the late 1920s, offers such a muted, smoothly textured swatch of British nostalgia that you feel no qualms about languishing in its ``Masterpiece Theatre'' vision of a safer, saner, more shining past.

With its soft-focus portrait of a mildly troubled family viewed through the adoring eyes of a frisky little boy, the film, which opened Friday, suggests Ingmar Bergman's ``Fanny and Alexander'' with all its demons comfortably subdued.

Amid the prevailing serenity, of course, there are some ruffles. They include a simmering rivalry between brothers-in-law, sexual jealousy and pre-adolescent prurience. A beloved matriarch dies. And there is an embarrassing public spat between the boy's parents.

But even the most upsetting events never undermine the film's glowing, child's-eye vision of life unfolding in a stately procession of lovely, adventure-filled days.

The film, based on Denis Forman's childhood memoir, ``Son of Adam,'' reunites director Hugh Hudson with producer David Puttnam for the first time since their 1981 blockbuster, ``Chariots of Fire.'' Without turning cloyingly inspirational, the newer film expresses the same quietly optimistic faith in humanity's nobler impulses.

``My Life So Far'' follows a year in the life of Fraser Pettigrew (Robert Norman), a 10-year-old boy growing up in Kiloran House, the sprawling castlelike home of the Macintosh clan in the Scottish highlands. Presiding over the property is Fraser's benign, widowed grandmother Gamma Macintosh (Rosemary Harris), whose daughter Moira (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) has married Edward Pettigrew (Colin Firth), a handsome eccentric gentleman inventor.

The film's most complex character, Edward is a passionate, fiery-eyed nonconformist who worships Beethoven (whose music he tells his son is the sound of God talking in his sleep) and is obsessed with aviation. When not tinkering with new gadgets, Edward oversees a marginally profitable moss factory that he has established on the estate.

Not all of his inventions work. His most notable dud is a subterranean chimney system that leaks so profusely that smoke that was supposed to have been piped underground billows up through the lawn in spectacular plumes.

Firth's deep, quietly tempestuous performance portrays Edward as both a caring father who delights in being a heroic role model for Fraser, and a petulant, self-absorbed visionary.

The movie's central drama, observed by Fraser without his fully comprehending what is happening, is the continuing power struggle between his father and his uncle (Moira's brother) Morris Macintosh (Malcolm McDowell). A hard-headed businessman, who hopes one day to inherit the estate, Uncle Morris, as Fraser calls him, disapproves of Edward's silly schemes.

When Morris brings home his new wife, Heloise (Irene Jacob), a beautiful, charming, much younger French woman and amateur cellist, Edward becomes instantly besotted and begins recklessly pursuing her right under his wife's nose. Relations between the brothers-in-law, which heretofore have been courteous, are strained to the breaking point, as is Edward and Moira's marriage.

THE FACTS

The film: ``My Life So Far'' (PG-13; adult situations, mild innuendo).

The stars: Colin Firth, Rosemary Harris, Irene Jacob, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Malcolm McDowell.

Behind the scenes: Directed by Hugh Hudson. Written by Simon Donald. Produced by David Puttnam and Steve Norris. Released by Miramax Films.

Running time: One hour, 33 minutes.

Playing: Landmark's Westside Pavilion in West Los Angeles, Laemmle's Sunset 5 in West Hollywood.

Our rating: Three stars.