REVIEW: Beginners

 There are no spoilers in this review.

PLOT: A young man is rocked by two announcements from his elderly father: that he has terminal cancer, and that he has a young male lover.


THE GOOD: Mike Mills. Beginners is writer and director Mike Mills' sophomore feature film. The story comes directly from his life and the experience he had when his father came out of the closet at age 75. But the movie doesn't spend as much time on this fact as it does on the topic of true love. Oliver, the screen version of Mills, is just finding true love for the first time in a French actress at the same time his father is finding true love for the first time in a younger man. Hence the title of the film. They are new to the concept of true love despite their significant age difference. The other area that the film explores, and I wish it explored more, was what it must have been like for his dad to be gay his whole life, but marry a woman and have a child. Mills' parents got married in 1955, during a time where homosexuality was severely looked down upon. He wanted to explore that time against the present and see what was different. Truth is, not much.

The day that Hal discovered Barbara Streisand.

Acting. Ewan McGregor stars as Oliver Fields. He has this genuineness about him that makes his predicament so believable. It has been a while since I've seen him in a film that I really enjoyed. His father is played by Christopher Plummer who just recently won a Golden Globe for his supporting performance. It is well-deserved. Inglourious Basterds' Mélanie Laurent plays Anna, the woman that Oliver starts to have a relationship with. Her initial encounter with Ewan felt so real and natural. In fact, all of their meetings feel like that. And then there's Cosmo who practically steals every scene he's in as Arthur. Arthur becomes Oliver's dog who can talk. Well, not really. What we see are subtitles of what Oliver might be thinking the dog would be saying and it's usually pretty comical. I would say that it's the second best dog performance behind Uggie in The Artist.

Editing. I enjoyed the editing of the film, especially the moments that cut in stills during the "This is ______ in 2003. This is ______ in 1955." It's fun and unique.

OLIVER: "Anna, don't look! This dog is naked!"

THE BAD: Nothing.


THE END: While the film has no negative aspects to it that I can think of, there are plenty of just okay moments. I feel like the film could have made more of an impact, but at the same time, I understand that it was an exploration of time and love. Beginners was one of my favorite films of 2011 and I highly recommend seeing it if you don't mind slower romantic comedies/dramas. Check this out soon.


DISCUSS: What did you think of Beginners? What did you think of the performances? What was your favorite animal performance of 2011? What would you do if you found out that your widow/windower mom/dad was homosexual?

Hal and Oliver's reaction to listening to said Barbara Streisand album.