Screenplay:
Mike MillsCinematography:
Kasper TuxenCast:
Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer, Mélanie Laurent, Goran Visnjic, Mary Page Keller, China Jesusita Shavers, Lou Taylor Pucci, Melissa Tang, Kai Lennox (more)VOD (2)
Plots(1)
Oliver meets the irreverent and unpredictable Anna only months after his father Hal has passed away. This new love floods Oliver with memories of his father who -- following 44 years of marriage -- came out of the closet at age 75 to live a full, energized, and wonderfully tumultuous gay life. The upheavals of Hal's new honesty, by turns funny and moving, brought father and son closer than they'd ever been able to be. Now Oliver endeavors to love Anna with all the bravery, humor, and hope that his father taught him. (Universal Pictures Home Entertainment)
(more)Videos (5)
Reviews (5)
Mélanie Laurent gave a very decent performance especially considering the fact that there was practically no plot. I had the impression that I wasn't watching a film, but a sad lyrical poem. My problem is, although I like literature, I’m not that into poems, especially lyrical ones, hence the two stars.
()
I have to say that when I watched the movie, I thought that a much more fitting title would be "Beginnings", or in Czech, "Začátky". I didn't know that the film was actually called that in Czech. I'm more familiar with how movies are titled in English, not Czech. I then came to the conclusion that the distribution company actually did think about the Czech title this time. A pleasant exception. Speaking of what's pleasing, besides the Czech title, it's the performances by the actors. It's a concert of three people - Ewan McGregor, Mélanie Laurent, and of course Christopher Plummer. I said that the soon to be eighty-three-year-old gentleman deserved the Golden statue for what he showed. He surprised me incredibly. He played a father who, at his blessed age, revealed to his son that he is gay, and had been his whole life, which he spent hiding the fact from his son's mother, his wife. The son is not shaken by it as much, but it's still a strong surprise. But the father goes further, he no longer wants to hide, he wants to be gay in practice. His wife has passed away, and he can now be truthful. He finds a forty-year-old lover, kisses him, holds his hand, loves him. It's evident on him. Plummer played a gay man incredibly convincingly at his age, I wish him the award, he deserves it. To get back to the movie. It's about beginnings. At the age of eighty, the father discovers what it's like to finally love someone differently than how society expresses it. His son, on the other hand, discovers what it's really like to love, his past relationships never lasted, as if he was afraid. His new partner is in the same situation. The film is filled with interesting passages, which are a series of photographs that are supposed to describe the period commented on by the main character. An interesting and original solution that complements the hero's introversion, who is focused on individual moments - he is a comic book artist. A pleasant film, definitely. More: http://www.filmovy-denik.cz/2012/09/rebelka-perfect-sense-sprosty-holky.html
()
At first glance, Beginners has a very attractive subject and an extremely likeable cast, which makes it all the more disappointing how flat and futile it is in the execution, bland and sticking to the surface. The film has several storylines and issues: interpersonal and intergenerational relationships, the question of death, sexual minorities, the search for one's own identity, but none of them were strong enough to engage me and move my perception. So I have to say that I was seriously disappointed, and not even the endearing Jack Russell and Christopher Plummer's Oscar-winning performance could help.
()
“It’s very easy to end up alone.” Even banalities can be touching if they’re delivered with feeling. Beginners, an Freudian interior tragicomedy, seems fresh despite not offering anything radically new in terms of form or content. The fragmentation of the cyclical narrative, depicting life experience in the post-modern age without a beginning or end, and the absence of greater drama and lesser conflict distinguish the film from more straightforward relationship dramas with a clear goal (as does the “indie” look with melancholic autumnal colours). The relationships between the characters are not conceived in a trivial manner. The only thing that’s regrettable about the film, though understandable given the autobiographical nature of the script, is the focusing of all attention on Oliver. The others – his father, his mother, his new girlfriend and his father’s lover – thus serve only as the key to understanding his personality, by himself and by us. The possibility, or rather capability of self-expression is the film’s central theme, from which Mills takes a slight, fidgety (of course, in accordance with the chosen form of the narrative) detour into politics, civic engagement and old films. After the death of his father, who for a long time could not give expression to his homosexuality, Oliver withdraws into himself instead of letting the world know that he is here, that he is lonely (because of his nature), sad (because of the past and memories) and filled with worry (because of the future). Unlike the gay men whose voices were silenced for decades, the only thing that stops him from screaming is his own inability to accept the change in his life brought about by his father’s death. He is drawn back into the world of talking (i.e. not canine) heads by – psychoanalysts, take note – a girl without a voice, disguised as a man when they first meet (or she is at first just a substitute for Oliver’s father, filling the empty space). Anna and Oliver’s outwardly simple and ordinary coming together uses a number of romantic clichés that involve breaking up and making up and, in light of the doubly irrational relationship between Oliver’s mother and father, raise questions that don’t come up in an ordinary romance. For example, the most basic question – why do two people stay together? On the relationship level, it’s obvious how personal a film Beginners is for Mills. The crucial word is “sensitivity” and the actors give it meaning. Ewan McGregor, whose restrained speech corresponds superbly to Oliver’s state of mind, for once falls under the suspicion that he is playing his part under the influence of Valium. The veteran actor Christopher Plummer, who enjoys his role as an “old queer” as much as Mélanie Laurent relishes her role as a charming protector, about whom you can know everything and she will still give the impression of being mysterious. She is thus a bit like a being from another world, outwardly unburdened by any serious concerns, but again that slightly buck-passing excuse comes up – Anna serves exclusively for the protagonist to find himself, so a more thorough depiction of her is not desirable. Beginners managed to avoid that stupidly optimistic, everything’s-going-to-be-okay, everyone-is-happy feeling and yet, despite a certain unevenness, it leaves you with a thoroughly pleasant feeling. A feeling that you don’t have to be ashamed of. 80%
()
(less)
(more)
Everybody lives, everybody suffers, everybody dies. A classic tough-minded indie with a classic tough-minded protagonist. He should carry a ball.
()
Ads