BEGINNERS (2010)
Beginners is a film I really wanted to like. Starring Christopher Plummer, one of my all-time favorite actors, as a dying man named Hal Fields who has finally come out as gay in his old age, (a role that won him an Academy Award) I had high hopes. Another of my faves, Ewan McGregor, plays Hal's son, Oliver. Though Beginners mostly came through for me, there were areas where I found it lacking.
If you don't see it for any other reason though, see it for Christopher Plummer's performance: one of the few happy spots in this otherwise downbeat film.
The story centres around Oliver, who, after his mom dies, and he finds out about his father's prognosis, embraces sadness like a teddy bear. He uses it in his work as an artist, and wears it on his sleeve while he tentatively begins a relationship with a French actress, Anna, played by Melanie Laurent. Her moods match his so precisely they can almost not stand to be together - yet neither can they stand to be apart. However, Hal is so determined to find joy in the time he has left, to have a boyfriend, to participate in gay pride, to have parties and go to clubs, that it makes his son's morose outlook seem self-indulgent.
The story jumps back and forth in time so that sometimes the action takes place after Hal's death, sometimes before, and sometimes as far back as Oliver's childhood wherein he shares a close, if not somewhat quirky relationship with his mother, Georgia. Played by Mary Page Keller, Georgia is a woman who long ago accepted she married a gay man but still yearns for his attentions. She pours her frustrated energies into raising her son, creating a sweet and enduring relationship with him, which is why Oliver is so lost after her death. He ultimately begins to truly understand his parents' relationship through the truths that Hal reveals to him. The non-linear story is helped along by the use of Oliver's illustrations and musings, which serve to narrate the film to some degree. This same kind of mixed-media effect, along with a well-edited time line, reminded me of a film I loved, 500 Days of Summer. But though Beginners isn't meant to be a romantic comedy, as 500 Days of Summer sort of is, all the clever effects and editing don't really serve to scrape this movie out of the doldrums. It's a well-written, well-directed, well-acted film, but I just can't say I loved it. Some sad movies serve as cathartic - helping us get through the tough times in life. Others just make us depressed. Beginners falls somewhere in between. If you don't see it for any other reason though, see it for Plummer's performance: one of the few happy spots in this otherwise downbeat film.
Movie reviewed by Georgina Young-Ellis
