BEGINNERS – FREELANCE CORRESPONDENT MARTIN SIMPSON
Review By Martin Simpson
Director: Mike Mills
Cast: Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer, Mélanie Laurent, Goran Visnjic
Synopsis: From writer/director Mike Mills comes a comedy/drama about how deeply funny and transformative life can be, even at its most serious moments. -Beginners- imaginatively explores the hilarity, confusion, and surprises of love through the evolving consciousness of Oliver (Golden Globe Award nominee Ewan McGregor). Oliver meets the irreverent and unpredictable Anna (Melanie Laurent of Inglourious Basterds) only months after his father Hal (Academy Award nominee Christopher Plummer) has passed away. This new love floods Oliver with memories of his father who – following 44 years of marriage – came out of the closet at age 75 to live a full, energized, and wonderfully tumultuous gay life. The upheavals of Hal’s new honesty, by turns funny and moving, brought father and son closer than they’d ever been able to be. Now Oliver endeavors to love Anna with all the bravery, humor, and hope that his father taught him.
Review: Plainly shot and naturalistically lit, this soft spoken essay on the difficulties and rewards of love starts slowly with Oliver (Ewan McGregor) unable to resolve his sadness following the death of his gay father, Hal, (Christopher Plummer). It blossoms in a world of feeling as Oliver’s problems with connection surface and must be dealt with through his complicated relationship with the strange and equally isolated actress, Anna (Mélanie Laurent).
The documentary style design, with flashback, voice over, montage, even a sub-titled Jack Russell terrier, Arthur, (ex-stray Cosmo) gives Oliver’s and his parent’s relationships context in the broader world over their lifetime. This imaginative and unusual documentary approach to a narrative film illustrates its autobiographical origins in the life of writer/director Mike Mills.
Performances are uniformly understated and wonderful all the way to the minor players. Even the dog brings a warmth and quirkiness to his character. Ewan McGregor’s leading man gives us the tumult beneath the taciturn surface of Oliver. Mélanie Laurent seethes with sex, hope and unhappiness, playing an international actress whose only home is an endless series of hotel rooms. Christopher Plummer, as an old man revelling in his true nature after a life of repression, and facing death with quiet disdain, fills the screen with dignified joy.
If you’re looking for an action packed adventure film with galloping narrative drive, this is not for you. But if you’ve loved and hoped and lost and found, I can recommend that you settle in to this movie for a deep quiet drink at the wellspring of human feeling.
Good review.
thank you for visiting and commenting Peter. Look forward to hearing from you more in future