Mike Mills' "Beginners" is a quirky, intelligent, and bittersweet comedy-drama. It is a film of relationships - complex, troubled, and sometimes unsatisfying ones. It features Christopher Plummer in an Oscar-winning performance as Hal, a man who after his wife dies, confesses to his son, Oliver (Ewan McGregor) that he is, in fact, gay and always had been.
We are given three separate but interweaving facets of time in "Beginners". In one, we see Oliver in his childhood and his various interactions with his mother. Now that we are given the information that his dad will turn out to be gay, it makes his mother's predicament all the more poignant and sad. She has an unfulfilling relationship with her husband and we know why. This, in turn, is reflected in her relationship with Oliver which will affect his own development and eventual relationships in adulthood.
A second time period is in the near past when Hal confesses he is gay and decides to live a new lifestyle out of the closet. We are introduced to his much younger boyfriend, Andy (Goran Visnjic) and their own complex relationship. Soon, Hal is diagnosed with a fatal disease and we are shown his struggle with it and eventual death.
Finally, the last time period is the most recent one and features Oliver and his attempt at a new and exciting relationship with Anna (Melanie Laurent), a girl he meets at a costume party.
All of these time periods are interspersed with each other and gives us awareness of the characters various motivations and psychologies. Oliver, we learn, has never had a serious relationship and his new one is troubled as a result and there is question as to whether it will last.
The performances are fantastic in this movie. Plummer deserved his Oscar. McGregor is great and Laurent, who you might recognize from "Inglourious Basterds" is endearing and cute. Even the dog Arthur is given subtitles which add depth to the canine performance. I liked everything about this movie: the acting, the quirky inter-titles and offbeat humour, and examination of relationships and how our past effects the present in many different ways.
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