Review of Beginners (2011) by Lilianetty L — 23 Mar 2013

BEGINNERS has many nice elements to it, and it is a sweet movie overall. But it is also very uneven and frustrating too.

The essential concept is what interested me (that and the actors) in watching this. A son (Ewan McGregor), well into his thirties and still quite single, has to grapple with the death of his mother, followed closely by the announcement from his father (Christopher Plummer) that he is gay and intends to start enjoying an open, gay lifestyle. And not long after, the father develops cancer and is gone all too soon. I'm not spoiling anything, because we learn all this in the opening moments of the film, which is a series of intertwining flashbacks. One series shows the young boy experiencing his home life growing up with a distant father and a moody, unhappy mother. The other shows him observing how happy and generous and open his father has become once out of the closet. And the last shows his father's last days...when the old man was still warm, funny and open. Finally, mixed in with the flashbacks are scenes of a developing romance between McGregor and Anna, an actress and "free spirit" (Melanie Laurent, so wonderful in INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS).

Plummer is fantastic in the film, and the Oscar talk is certainly deserved. When Plummer was younger (back in the SOUND OF MUSIC DAYS)...I don't think he was a very good actor. Stiff and cold. In his old age, he's given some marvelous performances. It's as though he no longer worries about how he looks and just lets himself BE and DO whatever the part calls for. Ironically, even though he's in his `80s, he comes off more virile and passionate now than he ever did 40 years ago. And even though the costume designer thinks all old, gay men wear ridiculous scarf-type thingies...he pulls of his free-wheelin' gay lifestyle with wonderful grace. He is making up for decades of lost time, and boy, does he give it his all, this man. Parties, clubs, boyfriends, and fun. And he finally is able to develop a close relationship with his son. He has the love in his life that he always truly craved, and doesn't have to hold back for anyone.

McGregor handles these scenes very well. He's perplexed by dad, but also moved by his stories of being in the closet and arranging secret rendezvous with other men. He's angry at what his dad put his mom through...but he's also moved by the joy his father now experiences. And he does very well in the scenes with his dad at the end nears.

But the romance scenes with Laurent don't work so well. First of all, Melanie Laurent is a glowing actress, but her English is quite hard to understand. The pillow talk between these two is almost one sided, because I could so seldom understand her whispers. Her character is also quite unbelievable. She's a successful enough actress, apparently, to be put up in a huge luxury suite at a luxury hotel...yet she has lots and lots of time to gallivant around with McGregor, never needing to be on set, apparently, and never being recognized by anyone. She is more of an "idea" from the scriptwriter than a real person. Again, Laurent is not the problem...the fact that English is not her language and the character isn't believable can't be pinned on her. And McGregor seems a bit too misty-eyed in these scenes. He's such a milquetoast! And again, the clothes he's asked to wear (striped shirts dangerously close to Marcel Marceau-land) do NOT help him. One almost wonders if he needs to come out of the closet too. (Not trying to lean on stereotypes, but the thought does occur.).

And worst of all is the character of Andy, as played by Goran Visnjic (once a regular on ER). This is Plummer's steadiest boyfriend, the lover who is there at the end. Visnjic plays him so utterly unconvincingly that I almost cringed to see him. He minces about with such unbridled fervor that it feels like a Benny Hill caricature. The script is no help to him...but he takes what he has to work with it and turns it into utter garbage. I felt sorry for the other actors having to share a sound stage with him.

Overall the film has many very nice moments. It was clearly made with love by writer/director Mike Mills (apparently semi-autobiographical). But what it needed, I think, was more of a critical, dispassionate 2nd opinion from someone not quite so close to the material. Some tightening of the script, better development of the secondary characters (including Laurent's character) and a far better costume designer could easily have turned this from a three-star, soon-to-be-forgotten film into a 4.5 star, memorable exploration of the human heart.