Rating:  

Starring: Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer, Melanie Laurent, Goran Visnjic, Kai Lennox, Mary Page Keller, Keegan Boos, Lou Taylor Pucci, Michael Chieffo, Bambadjan Bamba.
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Director: Mike Mills
Rating: R
Running Time: 105 Minutes
Release Date: December 20, 2011
Home Video Release Date: November 15, 2011
Box Office: $5.8 Million
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Olympus PIctures, Parts and Labor, Northwood Productions, and Focus Features.

Written by: Mike Mills.

Writer/director Mike Mills’ real life experiences of living with his father’s coming out as a gay man at the age of 75 years old is a fascinating story in and of itself. The fact that his father came out shortly after the death of his wife and Mills’ mother is another layer to the story. Taking a boyfriend less than half his age and proclaiming the relationship as the “love of his life” embeds the story even deeper and having to process all of this, day to day and moment to moment, is somewhat hard to even fathom.

Mills, a former graphic designer and music video director, took his real-life story to pen and paper and wrote the screenplay which ultimately became his second feature film, Beginners. Mills’ story is as unique as it is fascinating, but is less about the salaciousness involving his father’s disclosures and everything to do with the processing of the information. All at once, Mills was forced to accept that his father was excited to finally be living the life he always wanted to live, forced to find adequate time to grieve over the loss of his mother, and introspectively analyze his own issues with commitment and how all of it now parlays into his emotional and physiological well-being.

Rather than tell his story in a conventional narrative, Mills opts for an effective non-linear approach, which might at once seem gimmicky and “indie”, but soon works extremely well in depicting how Mills’ mind is functioning through all of the things he is dealing with. Of course, one other detail prevails upon every waking moment with Mills’ on screen incarnation, Oliver (Ewan McGregor), and the on screen representation of his father, Hal (Christopher Plummer). Hal has been diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer and his prognosis is poor, his time limited.

As we criss-cross back and forth through time, we learn as Oliver learns. We are taken in and around important years in Oliver’s family’s life. We see vignettes of Oliver as a boy interacting with his mother (Mary Page Keller), we leap ahead to Hal’s relationship with his free-spirited and rather hyperkinetic boyfriend Andy (Goran Visnjic), and we see the burgeoning relationship develop, after the closure of all of these events, between Oliver and French actress, Anna (Melanie Laurent).

And despite a lot of dramatic elements, Beginners has a surprising and necessary wit about it. The heavier elements of the story are given their proper buoyancy but the film is full of quirky and humorous moments as well. Shining bright is the performance by Christopher Plummer as Hal. Plummer shares carefree innocence and unbridled charm alongside moments of wincing regret. Mills has written a very precarious character for Plummer to play and embody. On the one hand, Hal is thrilled at finally being able to live his life out, with no constraints, and the freedom to pursue interests and activities he has waited his whole life to enjoy. On the other hand, he is silently mournful that he has only a small window of time to live a life he has always wanted. Hal had a connection to his wife of 45 years, is proud of and loves his son but is worried at his son’s inability to commit and whether or not he had a role in that. Plummer gives one of the year’s richest and most rewarding performances here.

Ewan McGregor handles Oliver well and strikes up a nice chemistry with Melanie Laurent’s Anna. Laurent is a fine actress who can keep you guessing as to what her next line or movement will be and McGregor is more than able to handle the confounding and introspective elements of Oliver here.

At the end of the day, Mike Mills does share a different approach than other directors and elements such as Oliver’s unique communicative abilities with his dog, Arthur, and the scrapbook snapshot retrospectives throughout the film may alarm and disorient some viewers who like things told in a more straightforward fashion. While the thrust of the story centers on Oliver’s coming to terms with the who, what, where, when, how, and why which defines who his father was and now is, the romance between Oliver and Anna tends to distract a bit too much. And yet the film is always intriguing, holds our attention, and is paced and delivered so confidently, the left-of-center quirks and narrative deviations are forgivable. Depending on your tastes they might even seem invigorating.

Beginners payloads such a unique story that while certainly people will take different things from it, few can say that they have experienced the events that Mike Mills shares with us here. Mills questions and never patronizes, searches but never overstays. Beginners possesses qualities which, were they present in another film, might aggravate me to no end. By infusing his second film with vulnerability and an exploratory look within, Mike Mills turns Beginners into a rather profound, moving, and inquisitive essay about life; how we live it, what we do with it, and what we make of it.

Should I See It?

A unique and well-written dramedy, Beginners will eventually win you over with its charm, its heart, and its honesty.

Christopher Plummer has been at the center of Oscar buzz since the film’s festival run and it would not surprise me at all to see his moving and affecting performance bring home the Best Supporting Actor prize at the 2012 Oscar ceremony.

Mike Mills takes risks in telling his story in an unconventional way. In other films, his subtitled dog, his flashbacks, his narration would prove mawkish and heavy-handed. Mills however effectively creates and blends an array of storytelling techniques and flourishes that makes Beginners stand out and just works extremely well.

Those who feel that there is no way a 75-year old man, married for 45 years, could really be homosexual, need not even bother. The film is realistic and humanistic, but those who refuse to see this scenario as even in the realm of possibility need not apply.

Where I found the quirks and nuances effective, fresh, and unique, others may wish that Mills told his story in a more conventional manner and will likewise not enjoy the different approach to the story as Mills presents it.

Some have complained that Mills’ decision to level the storylines between Oliver’s father’s coming out and Oliver’s relationship with Anna is distracting, loses narrative focus, and undermines the entire film.