MOVIE REVIEW: 'Beginners'

Beginnerscould have been a very tiresome movie, another tale of two people trying tostart over again after leaving their old lives behind, another story of fathersand sons coming to an understanding. Make no mistake, it is about those things,but writer/director Mike Mills finds a way around making any part of his filmpredictable. It seems like you’re entering familiar territory, but thensomething magical happens as you sink deeper in to the charming, non-linearembrace of Beginners.
After hismother dies, Oliver (Ewan McGregor) is thrown for a loop by his father Hal’s(Christopher Plummer) decision to come out of the closet after more than 40years of happy marriage to a woman. Though terminal cancer slows him down, hewastes no time embracing his new lifestyle with what little life he has left,visiting clubs and joining causes and starting a relationship with a muchyounger man (Goran Visnjic).
We pick upOliver’s life after his father’s death, as he’s trying to get back in thedating game after he meets the beautiful Anna (Melanie Laurent), a Frenchactress. Chronically unlucky in love, he reflects on his father’s fearlessfinal days as he tries to figure out how to make this relationship last.
In our eyesOliver’s life becomes a stream of consciousness blending of images, colors,memories and new experiences as Anna’s gentleness and own troubled past drawthem closer together. He tries to learn from his father, and also from hislong-dead mother, even as he struggles against the same old pitfalls thatkilled his previous relationships. Through Oliver we see a version of Halthat’s gentle, optimistic and loving, but still very hard for his own son tounderstand.
Beginners is that marvelous blend of not quite comedy and not quite drama. I saymarvelous because, if they’re done right, films like that ring the truest. Lifeis messy, after all, neither a barrage of jokes nor a barrage of tragedies.Mills finds a way to blend the two in a kind of seamless screen poetry, mergingthe past and present and the conscious and subconscious masterfully.
If there’s aflaw in the film, though, it’s that Mills sometimes takes his nonlinearframework a little too far. There are moments when the film’s structure seemsready to collapse in on itself with collaged images and feelings. It feelsflimsy, and as a consequence some of the emotional weight of what’s happeningfades a bit. By the end, though, Mills knows where he’s headed, and even withits sometimes murky storytelling Beginners ends right where it should.
The cast isuniversally fantastic, but none more so than Plummer, who won his first everOscar for his portrayal of Hal. There’s nothing flashy about what he does,nothing terribly flamboyant. It’s all in the eyes, and that you’re able tofollow him through even the most subtle moments is proof of his mastery of thecraft. McGregor and Laurent also shine, both displaying an often staggering emotionalrange.
Beginners is not perfect. Sometimes its own ambition gets in the way of its emotionalcore, leaving some scenes murky and a little too loose. But even with thoseflaws, it shines as an example of a bold new way of telling a very old story.It’s a moving, enchanting little film, and very easily endearing.
Beginners is available everywhere on DVD and Blu-Ray.