Beginners

Plot synopsis:
In 2003, 38-year-old Oliver Fields (Ewan McGregor), a somewhat solitary graphic artist living in Los Angeles, is quietly grieving after the death of his father, Hal (Christopher Plummer). Two months after Hal's death, Oliver is in a state of functional depression. He had adopted his father's beloved Jack Russell terrier, Arthur, and brings him along nearly everywhere as he cannot bear to hear the dog cry when left alone in the house. Oliver's friends talk him into attending a costume party. With Arthur in tow, Oliver attempts to brave the social gathering. Dressed as Sigmund Freud, Oliver sits by a couch and gives impromptu psychoanalysis to party-goers who ask for it.One of his "patients" is a young woman (Melanie Laurent) who communicates using only a notepad and pen. Despite the speech barrier, they form a bond and Oliver is able to enjoy the rest of the party. As he prepares to take Arthur home, Oliver shyly gives the woman his number. Moments later, as he walks to his car, she calls him and speaks using a code of telephone beeps. They go to her hotel room, where Oliver falls asleep in his costume.The next morning, still using her notepad, the woman explains that she is an actress and must travel to New York for filming. She asks to see Oliver again when she returns, and he happily agrees.During his childhood, Oliver was close with his mother, Georgia (Mary Page Keller). His father was often emotionally absent, which caused tension in the marriage. Years later, Oliver found out that his parents had known about Hal's sexuality from the beginning. Georgia came from a Jewish family and was discriminated against while growing up during World War II, and Oliver realized the emotional pain that surrounded his parents, living in an era when such significant elements of their characters were taboo.It is only after Georgia dies during Oliver's mid-thirties when Hal finally confesses his homosexuality to his son. Having hidden that side of himself for decades, Hal is free to embrace it at age 78 by becoming very active in the local gay community and entering into a relationship with a younger man. Soon afterward, Hal is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. Oliver stayed by his father's side as his health declinedThe young woman, Anna, returns to L.A. and reunites with Oliver. Oliver is initially hesitant about letting her into his life after a string of failed relationships, but reconsiders when Anna (now speaking) proves to be a smart and understanding person. As their relationship progresses, they reveal painful details of their pasts. Eventually, a smitten Oliver invites Anna to move in with him.A home life together proves to be more stressful than either Oliver or Anna expected. Anna is overcome with emotion at such a large change, which is exacerbated by her worn-down nerves from talking to her depressed and suicidal father, who constantly hounds her with phone calls. Anna tearfully agrees that living with Oliver is not working out, and she returns to New York. Oliver is devastated at the breakup.Some time later, Oliver resolves to contact Anna again. He flies to New York and knocks on the door of her apartment. Receiving no answer, he calls her cell phone and she explains with some amusement that she had not left L.A. since their breakup. She tells Oliver where her spare key is located, and he lets himself into her empty apartment. She gives him a tour over the phone, similar to the tours Oliver gave to Anna and Arthur when they first entered his house.Arriving back in L.A., Oliver invites Anna over. She greets him and Arthur with reserved happiness. Sitting on the bed, Anna and Oliver glance hopefully at each other, timidly contemplating starting their relationship over again.

Tags: depressing, dramatic, cute, flashback, autobiographical, romantic

Review:
It may not particularly exist for any reason, it just exists and for me, that was all it needed to do to hit me right in the heart.In taking on a subject matter as emotionally strong as this (a father coming out of the closet at a late age and then being diagnosed with terminal cancer), Mills was open to a plethora of moments for overbearing melodrama to bring the audience to tears, but he never embraces this in a traditional way at all.
Oliver and Anna instantly became one of my favorite couples in the history of cinema, with the incomparable chemistry between Ewan McGregor and Melanie Laurent, and Hal reminded me so much of my grandfather it really brought me to tears several times.
Mills and Laurent take a character that could have been conventional and tossed aside for the father-son dynamic and make a fully-fleshed person out of her, complete with her own demons and turmoil and I fell in love with her all the way.Then comes Christopher Plummer as Oliver's father, who is everything you could want from this guy; charming, chaotic, filled with life and regret.
Christopher Plummer is superb as the 75 year old who confesses to his son, he's been gay all his life and after the death of his wife, a sublime Mary Page Keller, he allows that side of his nature to take off and experiment, for the first time in his life, in an honest loving relationship with another man, the odd and lovely Goran Visnjic.
The story is primarily about the relationship between a man, Oliver (Ewan McGregor), and his father, Hal (Christopher Plummer).
He doesn't want to make the same mistake.Oliver (Ewan McGregor) is the narrator of the movie in which he is telling the story of his life.
We restarted watching it from the beginning, and this time around we endured 45 minutes of it before shutting it off, concluding that either we were indeed missing something, or that this is simply an unwatchable film.Finally, after reading more positive reviews, I decided to re-watch the film to its conclusion, again re-starting it from the beginning -- my wife, who, although she once vowed "to be true to me in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health," actually REFUSED to share this punishment with me.I've now concluded that I didn't miss anything, and that this film is simply an awkwardly and unsubtly written and directed exercise in cinematic self-indulgence (the movie is in fact based on the writer-director Mike Mills' personal experience).And what does this experience consist of?After the death of his mother from cancer, a young man in his thirties finds out that his 75-year-old father is gay; the father gets involved with a younger lover, and soon dies of cancer himself.
The son, who has difficulties "committing," eventually begins a romance with a young French woman.Oh, yes, I almost forgot, the son is now left with his father's cute Jack Russell terrier ("Harry"), whose thoughts are indicated in subtitlesThis riveting plot is told in an arty, disjointed way, where past and present are constantly juxtaposed.Christopher Plummer (Hal, the father) and Ewan McGregor (Oliver, his son) did the best they could with this trivial confection; Goran Visnjik (Andy, Hal's young lover) looked and sounded totally ridiculous (was he wearing a wig?).
Fortunately, her scenes with McGregor consist mostly of long, meaningless silences.Being a big-time dog and cat lover, I found the little Jack Russell ("Harry") absolutely cute and engaging -- though, even here, I found that giving him occasional subtitles was perhaps a bit TOO cute -- and further betrayed the director's desperation.The only thing that could possibly have made this film worse is if instead of Ewan McGregor they had cast Matthew McConaughey as Oliver..
Having seen the trailer for "Beginners" a few times at the art cinema near us, I expected a poignant, funny, fast-paced slice-of-life movie about the advertised situation of a widower dad coming out of the closet at age 75.
I have seen most everything Ewan MacGregor has been in and always enjoy his work, and he was fine, but since his part was written in such a joyless manner, he did not matter.The "romance" and the scenes of he and the Melanie Laurent character were nothing less than excruciating, whereas the scenes involving the gay life were terrific; while there was no love noted between the heteros, there was plenty for the gays.
Instead, the main story follows MacGregor (who needs to choose better scripts or we'll forget "Shallow Grave" ever existed) in the years after his father's death, telling us over and over how sad he is, how incapable of commitment, how much he loves his dog (who speaks in subtitles), and how sad he is again, as he bonds, un-bonds and re-bonds with a pretty French actress as vapid as he is, all to sad, pretty piano music.
Oliver (Ewan McGregor) is shocked when his widowed father (Christopher Plummer) comes out to him as a gay man.
And I mean not just the structure of the film and the choices of what to reveal when, but also the acting and interactions between the three main actors that bring it to life.Along with McGregor, Christopher Plummer makes a wonderful aging, dying man who still loves life and lives it as fully as you can expect.
Ewan McGregor and the lovely Melanie Laurent play two morose people who have no faith in the existence of love or relationships that can actually work and yet nevertheless decide to give it a try with each other.The film has some modest charms to recommend it, but it's ultimately too gloomy for its own good.
I just wanted to find happier people to hang out with.Christopher Plummer received much acclaim, and an Oscar by the time I got around to writing this comment, as McGregor's dad, who comes out of the closet and then dies of cancer, not helping much to dispel his son's gloom.Grade: B-.
Set in 2003 in California a graphic designer Oliver(Ewan McGregor)starts to reflect on life, love, and everything in general after the loss of his father Hal(the wonderful Christopher Plummer).
Really humans can be so transformed.Director Mike Mills showcases the story of this picture mostly thru flashback as Oliver has memories of the times with his father Hal, and in an interesting subplot Oliver begins a love and intimate relationship with a free spirited French actress Anna(Melanie Laurent), and it's here that Oliver learns a lot about life and love as he tries to connect the times with memories of his father's secret love life.
Beginners struck me as a very well-acted film with a great performance by Christopher Plummer, but just far to unfocused and scattered to really invest in for very long.Ewan McGregor plays Oliver, a 30- (or 40-) something dealing with the recent death of his both of his parents.
The film then starts jumping around in time, switching between his boyhood memories of his eccentric mother (though not quite eccentric enough to make you look forward to the next time she appears on screen); his adult memories of his father (Christopher Plummer), a few years before his death; and his current struggles in trying to build a relationship with a beautiful French actress that he (improbably) meets at a party.
While the acting in Beginners was certainly excellent and Mélanie Laurent (Anna) is lovely to look at, I had a hard time staying awake during what seemed like an interminable two hours.Another comment said the dog (Arthur) has the best lines; he may be right!
This film is about a young man whose father came out as being gay and was found to have terminal cancer.The plot summary of "Beginners" makes the film sound like a touching, introspective and soul searching journey of Oliver, who deals with his father's big changes.
Hal had come out of the closet and confessed to his son that he was gay after the death of his mother and soon he finds a boyfriend, Andy (Goran Visnjic).When Oliver meets the French Anna (Mélanie Laurent) and they have a relationship.
The actual film couldn't be further from that ...I happen to like films that don't lay out every answer for me in a linear fashion and 'Beginners' absolutely left me with questions while the "unstuck in time" narrative offered a terrific mix of foreshadowing (or are they flashbacks?) and more.There were certain elements I could have done without: the "slideshows" detailing what key dates "looked like" (save for the falsity of '50s advertising, these bits seemingly don't really contribute to our understanding of the characters or the times), a brief foray into the gay rights movement (though promotion of the film has focused on the supposed gay storyline, this is really very much secondary), and making the dog a wee bit too cute (yet, without him, I accept the film would likely have been too dour).While I'm possibly a bit unclear on the origins of the father and son (neither actor makes much effort to "Americanize" their respective accents, but which are, granted, nominal to being with), the performances (including aforementioned canine) are terrific and largely unaffected, particularly given plot devices that could easily have lead to more predicable choices.
Meanwhile his son, played by Ewan McGregor, begins to understand his father better, and after his death, uses what he's learned to begin a new life of his own, most importantly in the form of a relationship with a French actress, played by Mélanie Laurent.
The director has also done a great job by mixing different eras and generations into one smooth line, that viewers do not feel themselves getting lost or confused.Actors are also great, but the real star is Christopher Plummer - luckily he got an Academy Award for his superb performance.
Questions will undoubtedly race through anyone's mind, much less the son's, as to why and how the couple decided to stay together despite obvious knowledge of one's sexual orientation that this heterosexual relationship just wouldn't work out naturally, but that it did was nothing short of amazing, and amazing is the word to describe this film.It's unique presentation utilized still shots like photographs from memory, wry humour, flashbacks galore and plenty of narration from the protagonist Oliver, played by Ewan McGregor, who is at the crossroads of his life with the death of his mom Georgia (Mary Page Keller), and his dad Hal (Christopher Plummer) revealing that he's gay.
Not to forget that the father's pet dog interacts and has some of the best lines (yes) in the film - you'll probably fall in love with the Jack Russell if you haven't already.What's made a lot more poignant, perhaps in more personal terms, is how one can never be too sure about one's romantic relationship with another, with a level of ambiguity setting in, and apprehension and hesitation playing a part in creating self-doubt, that what is working well, could be taken apart rather effortlessly not because of ego or envy or the usual issues, but that of just being clueless.
Then there's Keegan Boos playing the young Oliver and Mary Page Keller as the mom whose segments together with its dark humour left me in stitches, and left me wanting a lot more.Beginners possesses that sense of charm, wit, and all round great performance to complement that unique narrative of an unconventional story touching on how relationships with people shape our lives.
But as far as the "comedy" part is concerned, the only thing I think I smiled at was Goran Visnjic's hairstyle!This opens with Oliver (Ewan McGregor) grieving the recent death of his father Hal (Christopher Plummer.) The movie then moves back and forth between about 3 different subject matters - Ewan's upbringing which has made it difficult for him to show much emotion, Hal's decision after his wife's death a few years earlier to come out of the closet at the age of 75 and take a younger male lover (played by Visnjic) and Oliver's sudden and unexpected relationship with actress Anna (Melanie Laurent.) They all have problems.
Some good comedic and dramatic moments but generally quite dull.A 38-year old graphic designer, Oliver (played by Ewan McGregor), is dealing with the death, from cancer, of his father, Hal (Christopher Plummer).
Whereas, the father and son dynamics show more nuance and depth, ( helped tremendously by the solid acting skills of Christopher Plummer and Ewan McGregor ), the pivotal supporting roles of their mutual love interests are merely rough sketches that are not fully developed or particularly well written characters.
A young man (Ewan McGregor) is rocked by two announcements from his elderly father (Christopher Plummer): that he has terminal cancer, and that he has a young male lover.What makes this film fun is how light it takes its subject matter.
Described as an "uplifting comedy-drama" Ewan McGregor is 'Oliver,' a man dealing with his 75 year old father's announcement that he's gay and has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, while also entering into a new relationship himself.It's a quiet sort of movie that flip-flops back and forth (in time) a fair bit but not in a way that's confusing.
The story is lovely and as I said witty with a special feeling encompassing the entire piece and a very sad vein that runs right through until the end of the movie, you will see what I mean when you have finished watching the film.
And he's still in mourning, having lost both his parents and coping with a new, different relationship with his father.This is a lovely film about beginners - one, Hal, who takes on life with an energy and gusto of a man much younger; and Oliver, who seems like the 75-year-old, tentatively embarking on a relationship with Anna, unsure if it will work, unsure how he should feel.
Oliver Fields (Ewan McGregor) is depressed after the death of his father Hal (Christopher Plummer).
a movie about love, meetings, feelings, truth, life sense, expectations, refuges, pain, reflection, beauty, levels of present, courage, fear, illness, looks, importance of a dog, drawings as way to discover the essence, memories, comparisons, parties, hospital air, friendship, modeling of life, a dog, a son, an actress, Christopher Plummer in skin of strange character, Ewan McGregor as circle of shadow and delicate light, a book with many pictures and cold words, a ladder without Jacob, a sketch about gay coming out and fragile love between two people for who existence is a travel project.
'BEGINNERS': Three and a Half Stars (Out of Five) Christopher Plummer won an Academy Award for best supporting actor in this film about a man who starts a relationship with a young woman he meets at a party shortly after losing his father to cancer.
The movie is charming and funny and works as an upbeat comedy-drama.McGregor plays Oliver Fields, a graphic artist who (as the movie opens) has just lost his father Hal (Plummer) to cancer in the year 2003.
As Oliver gets to know Anna he also reflects on life with his father and mother, which are played out in flashbacks as the film jumps back and forth between different times.
On top of that Oliver also takes care of his father's dog, who he forms a strong relationship with as well.The movie is kind of uniquely directed in charming and beautiful ways that make it a mostly pleasant film going experience.
It certainly helps that Mills cast 81-year-old Christopher Plummer as the father since his naturally erudite manner complements his character Hal's innately fey quality in a way that makes his late-blooming emotional emancipation all the sweeter.
Loosely based on director Mike Mills' own experience as the son of a gay father who came out in his seventies, Beginners is the story of sexual and emotional repression, thwarted relationships, and fresh starts.
Hal (Christopher Plummer), at age 75, tells his 38-year-old son Oliver (Ewan McGregor), that he is gay and has been all of his life, letting him know that he loved his mother, but, unfortunately, does not take responsibility for failing to provide a nurturing and supportive environment for his family.
"Beginners" is one of those life dramas where Oliver (Ewan McGregor) has to take care of his dying father, Hal (Christopher Plummer).
"Beginners" talks about a young man named Oliver, portrayed by Ewan McGregor, who is reflecting on the life and death of of his father, in an Oscar-winning performance by Christopher Plummer, who reveals that he's openly gay and is affected with terminal cancer.
Christopher Plummer, Ewan McGregor and Mélanie Laurent score another good one with Mike Mills's "Beginners", about a man whose life changes after his father comes out as gay.
Beautiful and convincing acting of Ewan McGregor, Mélanie Laurent and masterly Christopher Plummer holds balance between comedy and drama, which makes this a true story..
Ewan McGregor is great as the son struggling with what he should do at basically every moment of the movie, and Christopher Plummer as his sick father is convincing in how lost his character can be.
A sweet and touching film, "Beginners" tells the story of Oliver Fields (Ewan MacGregor), a man in his late 30s who learns that his recently widowed 75 year-old father (Christopher Plummer) has terminal cancer—and is gay.
The first is his childhood, the second is shortly after his father's proclaimed homosexuality, and the third is current time when he is dating the lovely and beautiful Anna (Laurent).After Oliver's mother's death, his father Hal (Plummer) announces he is gay and wants to start dating in his own field.
Beginners (2010) *** (out of 4) Tender story about a man (Ewan McGregor) who is getting over the death of his mother when his father (Christopher Plummer) announces that he is gay and suffering from terminal cancer.
It stars Ewan McGregor as Oliver, the son grieving the loss of his father (Christopher Plummer), who came out as gay aged 75 once his wife had died.