You could say in Beginners’ favor that it executes an admirable pastiche on memory, loss, and the frightful uncertainties of newly found romantic love. You could also add that the end result, fraught with disparate, scattershot ingredients, too often resembles a jumble.
Let’s get the dog out of the way. A Jack Russell terrier whose “thoughts” are flashed on the screen as subtitles is an overwrought, superfluous contrivance that belongs in a much less ambitious film. Were it not for Beginners’ occasional keen insights this kind of preciousness would have drowned it.
With very fine performances from Christopher Plummer and Melanie Laurent (Inglorious Basterds) Beginners traces the announcement of 75-year-old Hal (Plummer) to son Oliver (Ewan McGregor) that Dad is indeed gay. Only occasionally using Hal as a device for social commentary, director Mike Mills is most interested in the effect Hal’s coming out (after his wife’s death) has on his psyche and on his son’s emotional composure. Mills’ sem-autobiographical plot crisscrosses flashbacks of Hal’s brief time of delayed happiness before and after discovering he has a fatal illness, with Oliver’s development (not long after Hal’s death) of a relationship with the kooky yet serene Anna (Laurent). A third strain throws in flashbacks of Oliver’s childhood memories of his eccentric Mom (a sharp Mary Page Keller).
Hal bravely towers over the urgency of his cancer, during which he has get togethers with a large group of gay friends. While we’re not given scenes from his marriage to compare, his new life clearly enriches him. Plummer, 81, a true treasure as a screen and stage actor, conveys pure contentment until the end. He makes the pain of his disease seem more of a nuisance than a cause for sorrow while presenting a caring Dad to Oliver in ways not shown during his marriage. Hal’s much younger lover (Goran Visnjic), while not as annoying as the terrier, seems either miscast or overacting or both.
Wish it were true that Oliver were anywhere near as compelling as Hal. A mere sketch of a man, were it not for the wonderful Laurent sharing his scenes, we’d notice even more his oversimplified dullness. Yet even with Laurent’s skills, their relationship, while often entertaining, seems more gimmicky than genuine. McGregor, so good in Ghostwriter, fails to add another dimension to Oliver.
A word about Melanie Laurent: she’s fascinating. During a pleasant costume party scene when they meet, she decides to lay on a couch to receive therapy from McGregor, (who’s playing Dr. Freud). Using pantomine and occasional written notes due to laryngitis, she introduces a quirky hobo character who intrigues and equally frustrates Oliver. Removing their disguises does little to change her effect on Oliver, who of course runs away from love because his parents had a less than close relationship. Credit Mills with defining Anna’s unorthodox character. Anyone who’s seen Mills’ wife onscreen (check out the brilliant Me and You and Everyone We Know, which she wrote, directed and starred in) has a pretty good idea where Anna’s commendably peculiar side may have originated.
While Beginners has a reputation it doesn’t deserve, Plummer and Laurent vindicate what is almost a dog-and-phony show.
6 hobos out of 10