October 2-3:
Beginners
(USA, 2010. 104
mins.)
October 2-3:
Beginners
(USA, 2010. 104
mins.)
A Film by Mike Mills
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXUFUp6vsxg
The
first film in the new season of Fringe
Flicks is Beginners (Oct. 2-3),
a new
film from Mike
Mills (Thumbsucker). When his
seventy-one-year-old father
(Christopher Plummer) comes out of
the closet, Oliver (Ewan McGregor) must explore the honesty of his own
relationships. Five years after Thumbsucker, director Mike Mills returns
to the Festival with another winning indie dramedy that balances humour, sorrow
and romance with aplomb. Beginners deftly juggles two chronologies to
tell the heartwarming story of two major points in the life of Oliver (Ewan
McGregor), a talented illustrator.
One timeline follows the slow-burning deterioration of Oliver’s father
(Christopher Plummer), who is dying of cancer. But his impending death is not
the only news that has caught Oliver off guard; his divorced father, at the age
of seventy-five, has also come out of the closet. Just like that, he gets a new
wardrobe, a new boyfriend and an entirely new outlook on life.
Following his father’s death, a bereaved Oliver becomes somewhat of a shut-in.
As Beginners takes us through his personal journey, the film flashes
forward, intercutting a budding relationship between Oliver and a young French
actress (Inglourious Basterd’s Mélanie Laurent) whom he meets at a
costume party that he attends under duress. The twin narratives gradually reveal
subtle associations about how Oliver reacts to both these unpredictable
relationships, and how his father and girlfriend motivate him to surpass his
self-prescribed limitations.
McGregor and Laurent have natural onscreen chemistry, and Plummer is outstanding
in his rich portrayal of a dying man who is finally able to live honestly,
breaking out of his shell so near the end of his life. The ensemble cast lends
the film a warm, understated aura that never feels the least bit contrived.
Mills is at the top of his game in crafting dynamic mood pieces that steer clear
of the usual trappings found in American independent cinema. The outcome is a
thoroughly enjoyable character study about people opening up and discovering
themselves despite age, preconceptions and illness.
Cast:
Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer, Mélanie Laurent, Goran Visnjic