Beginners (2011)
By thisguyoverhere | June 3, 2011
Cast: Ewan McGregor, Mélanie Laurent, Christopher Plummer
Directed by: Mike Mills
Written by: Mike Mills
Genre: Comedy, Drama
“We experience the sadness our parents didn’t have the time for.”
Writer/director Mike Mills has created Beginners out of a plethora of personal life experiences, the staple being that his father, in his twilight years, revealed that for his whole life he has been gay. With only his sophomore effort Mike Mills delivers expert storytelling abilities in this comedic and romantic drama.
Ewan McGregor stars as Oliver, a thirty-something who tends to his cancer-ridden father (Christopher Plummer), who now with the end of life in his sights, comes out of the closet. Oliver’s life is thrown topsy-turvy as he copes with both of these revelations. It’s no wonder that when he meets a mysterious and wonderful girl (Mélanie Laurent) at a costume party that he proceeds with trepidation. He’s certain that he’s destined to push away anyone who tries to get too close. But life doesn’t wait for people to come around, and Oliver is forced to come to terms with his father’s condition and newfound lifestyle, and maybe just maybe, let himself fall in love.
Mills seems to recognize how heavy his content and themes are, so he brilliantly utilizes a playful and upbeat style. Dictated mostly through Oliver’s voiceover, he allows us into the poignant, albeit sometimes schizophrenic, thought process that someone goes through when trying to make sense of life. Oliver guides us through on-screen slideshows of photographs comparing life now to life when he was a child, or when his parents were younger in order to find reason for the order of things in the world. There’s a hilarious use of subtitles as well as Oliver speaks to his father’s dog, which structurally acts as the ‘best friend’ (ha!) device that draws out the exposition and pushes the story foward. All of these fun tactics are the sugar to help the heartbreak of this film go down more easily.
Christopher Plummer & Ewan McGregor in Beginners (2011)
The cast has a lot to work with in creating their performances. These characters are so incredibly rich and bubbling with life. Ewan McGregor puts in one of the most charming and emotionally dynamic performances in years; Mélanie Laurent delivers an adorable and impassioned character in Anna, Oliver’s love interest; and Christopher Plummer continues his recent string of astounding golden age roles as Hal, Oliver’s dying father. The gift these actors give to the film is such easy access to connecting with their characters’ inner thoughts. We very quickly understand the complex emotions through such simple actions – how better to feel the excitement over a new crush than experiencing it for ourselves? Mills allows us to go through every nuance of the interaction between Oliver and Anna by simply taking the dialogue out of it, (in the scene, Anna has laryngitis and cannot speak, so she and Oliver interact through not speaking). Similarly, we’re forced to experience Oliver’s thought process in the other big revelations – we see Hal proclaim his sexuality whilst wearing a purple sweater, as Oliver claims to have remembered it. But we’re privy to both versions of this conversation: one where Hal, cleaned up, wears the purple sweater, and one where Hal is disheveled and wearing a bathrobe. Mills allows us both images so that we understand Oliver’s process of making sense of things.
What’s refreshing is that this is a story that is so personal, and personally told, that it defies conventions. Sure, there are plot points and act turns, but there are no formulated moments that we can point to in the film and say, “well, since we just received this bit of information, that must mean that ‘that’ must happen by the end.” Everything is just a natural progression of events motivated entirely through character. Each moment happens organically so that we can come to the same revelations at our own pace. Just as Oliver slowly comprehends how different things were when his father was younger, how people were distracted by wars, and political scares, and the pressures of finding a place in the norm, and that unlike his parents generation, we can experience the sadness that they never had time for.
USA. 105 minutes. Rated R.
