Beginners (2011)
Starring Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer, Mélanie Laurent, Goran Visnjic, and Mary Page Keller
Directed by Mike Mills
After forty-four years of marriage, recently widowed seventy-five year old Hal (Christopher Plummer) reveals to his son Oliver (Ewan McGregor) that he is gay in the opening scenes of Beginners, a lovely film that has a few faults, but in the end is a charming ode to the relationship between fathers and sons. Much like the title suggests, the film is all about new starts as Hal explores his rediscovered homosexuality which he had been repressing for decades and Oliver embarks on a new relationship with the cute as a button French aspiring actress Anna (Mélanie Laurent).
The film, directed and written by Mike Mills, jumps around in time and the two new beginnings mentioned above don't happen along the same time line. However, because of this juxtaposition between the two storylines, a certain poignancy is achieved because the newly single Hal is also diagnosed with an inoperable form of lung cancer in the film's opening moments (I promise I'm not spoiling anything with that reveal). Oliver falls for Anna only after his father has passed away and it causes him to react much differently to relationships than he did when his father was alive. Thanks to his father's final years, Oliver finds himself much more a "live in the moment" type of guy than he ever was before and he finds himself reawakened much like his father was.
Unfortunately, the film falters a bit when dealing with Oliver and Anna's relationship. I was along for the ride until about two-thirds of the way through when things change for the lovely couple and cracks begin to surface between the two. The "problems" that the duo faced never seemed the least bit "real" and I couldn't help but feel like the screenwriter just pigeonholed conflict in the story for the sake of conflict. It ends up being a rather large detriment to the film as it makes the serious final act of their story seem rather out-of-place with the whimsical charm of the first two-thirds.
That said, the viewer is treated to three very solid performances here. Ewan McGregor is at his best, playing a lonely bachelor who we can't help but root to find love. Once he does in the equally engaging and somehow plainly gorgeous Mélanie Laurent, we never want the two to part. McGregor and Laurent have a palpable chemistry that exudes precisely the right tones one wants to experience in a newfound relationship. With the exception of the aforementioned troubling moments in the final act of the film, their scenes together are played to near perfection.
Christopher Plummer is seemingly the man to beat for the Supporting Actor Oscar this year and while I'm not sure I'd go that far at this point, he's at the top of his game here. Simply charming, he conveys a sense of excitement as he embarks on his late-in-life change of heart, while at the same time continuing to provide a fatherly sounding board for his forlorn son, making sure that Oliver knew that he never regretted for one instance the choices that he made to be his father. When he gets his rather ominous medical diagnosis, it's all that more heartbreaking seeing as how he hasn't really lived his life to its fullest potential yet.
While Beginners was advertised as a piece about an old man discovering his homosexuality, the film is much more than that and is certainly worth checking out in anticipation of this busy upcoming awards season.
The RyMickey Rating: B
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