Beginners (2011)

As a big fan of quiet little films about the complexities of human interaction (and particularly those within a family), I had been waiting for a while to see "Beginners" and was hopeful that the film would be one of those movies that I call "lake movies": the kind where you can dive in to the depths of characters and also see yourself in the reflection of the surface.

"Beginners" is a lake movie.

Garnering attention for the performance by Christopher Plummer, a giant of the film world still patiently waiting for that long-overdue Oscar statue, "Beginners" is based on the life of its writer and director, Mike Mills, played with profound sympathy by the fantastic Ewan McGregor in a sort of alter-ego version of Mills known as Oliver Fields.

Mills intercuts three stages of Oliver's life together to form the film, which is told in a non-linear but highly understandable manner. The earliest stage is Oliver as a boy, spending most of his time with an emotionally vague mother (Mary Page Keller) while his father (Plummer) runs an art museum. The young Oliver regularly questions whether or not his parents' relationship is all right. He is assured that it is. He is, of course, being lied to.

The second stage of Oliver's life places him in his mid-30s. His mother has recently died from cancer and his father, Hal, has used the occassion to announce to Oliver that he is - and has always been - a homosexual. Oliver takes the news calmly, likely due to his overwhelming sense of shock and bewilderment. His father, now 75, seems like a new person to him. In a nod to the film's title, Hal flouishes in his eleventh hour, falling deeply in love with Andy, a much younger man (Goran Visnjic, of TV's "ER"), and embracing the culture of his now-open identity.

Hal's period of truly living in his own truth, sadly, is shortlived, and I'm not ruining the film to reveal that the third time period of "Beginners" follows a 38-year-old Oliver in the aftermath of his father's death, also from cancer, only four years after his mother's passing. This Oliver is a shell, a man engulfed in sadness, intimidated by Andy's love for his father and unwilling to let his feelings for a woman grow too complicated for fear of it leading to marriage, something he's convinced must end in failure. To keep him in the deep end of this lake of despair, Oliver grows inseparable from his father's Jack Russell terrier, Arthur. His friends drag him to a costume party for Halloween and he falls quickly in love with a guest at the party named Anna (the lovely Melanie Laurent), but seems ready at a moment's notice to sabotage the progressing relationship.

For a quiet film, "Beginners" has a depth that sneaks up on the viewer, and lest you think I revealed too much about its plot, know that the manner in which the events from these three stages of Oliver's life are revealed is a large part of the film's charm, and that I do not wish to spoil. Mills infuses the many sad moments of Oliver's life with a great deal of humor, or at least light-heartedness; at times, the dog Arthur "speaks" to Oliver in the same way that any dog lover can tell you he/she has conversations with his/her own pet. Here, Mills uses subtitles. He does not overdue the effect, and instead of throwing the viewer out of the reality of the picture, it deepens our understanding of Oliver.

Mills also subtly films flashbacks in static, framed and stable shots, while using handheld camera work for the scenes that take place in the present. In a brief documentary about the film inlcuded in the DVD release, Mills explains the logic of this choice by saying that our memories are like pictures, unchanging, while the present is active. It's a mature choice that elevates "Beginners" above what one would expect a movie like this to be.

As for the performances, they are the reason the movie washed over me and moved me so much. The spotlight on Plummer's performance is probably more because of his status as a legendary actor overdue for big awards than for his actual work here, which is understated. But for my money, the performance of the film belongs to McGregor, an actor perhaps sidelined in terms of his profound depth of ability by his cardboard appearances as the young Obi Wan Kenobi in George Lucas' Star Wars prequel trilogy. In some other year, I'd say McGregor is equally, if not more, deserving of recognition. There is pain in his eyes and in his posture, mixed with surprise and confusion. Who is this man he calls "father"? And who is he?

"Beginners" quietly shows us that life can begin at any time during our earthly years if we're willing to let it, and there is joy to be found in new beginnings. It is a touching "lake movie," always completely honest about family dynamics and the winding path of loss.

3.5 out of 4