Review of Beginners (2011) by Sean W — 30 Jan 2012

Hope you like your movies quirky. A young man (Ewan McGregor) finds out that his father (Christopher Plummer) has terminal cancer and is into guys, all while trying to manage a new relationship of his own with a young girl (Melanie Laurent).

The only thing I knew about this movie going in was old guy with cancer, and that's about all you walk away with as well. There's really not that much to this movie, both story wise and in character progression, and it ends up being pretty insubstantial.

It wants to be edgy with its risque subject matter, but it actually ends up being pretty tame, all things considered. Another department where it tries too hard in is with all of the idiosyncrasies and quirkiness.

This isn't a Coen brothers movie where the oddball characters and behavior are actually integral to the story being told and thus feel like they belong in this universe. Here, it is just being offbeat for the sake of being offbeat.

All that said, it may sound like I am coming down harder on the movie than I actually felt about it, because every so often it would do something charming or cute that would make me laugh or smile. It's not bad, but they could have just done so much more with it, especially in the second and third acts.