Beginners review
I’d been looking forward to “Beginners” since the film premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last fall and even more so after a trailer was released and the film went onto pick up even more buzz at this year’s SXSW. The film is the sophomore effort from director/graphic artist Mike Mills who has done music videos for Air, Pulp and Blonde Redhead as well as LP covers for Sonic Youth and the Beastie Boys among others. I first had a chance to see the film a few weeks ago a day or two after I arrived back from Hong Kong and despite my best efforts and through no fault of the film, could barely stay awake. It wasn’t slow or boring or any of that but the 12 hour time difference caught up with me and when the lights went down in the screening room, my body started to shut down involuntarily. So after fading in and out and straining to stay awake I had no idea how I might feel about the film. I saw it a second (or first depending…) time last weekend and was really charmed by it.
Ewan McGregor plays graphic designer Oliver (a stand-in for the director) whose father (Christopher Plummer) comes out of the closet at 75 years old after his wife passes away. This may seem like a high-concept plot but this is something that actually happened to Mills and he portrays it in an incredibly human way, both funny and touching. On another timeline, Oliver meets French actress Anna (played by the radiant Melanie Laurent) and the two begin a relationship together. The film has it’s quirks, but the trailer is very misrepresentative of the actual tone of the film which is far more heart-on-a-sleeve than you might expect. It’s this that distinguishes it from most films, it has a complete lack of irony and yet as the film takes some twists it doesn’t dwell in sadness either. It’s a remarkable balancing act as the film could have easily been insufferable in the hands of a lesser filmmaker but Mills keeps it real, emotionally anyway and it pays off. I wasn’t in love with his debut “Thumbsucker” but his new film feels like he’s really turned a corner as a filmmaker.
