Beginners (Mike Mills, 2010): Canada

Reviewed by Kris Mendes at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival

A film about the  new formed bond in the relationship between a dying father and his son, after a big revelation, Beginners is a film that deals with the theme of  homosexuality (the big secret) -and the effects of its repression on a family- in a positive, non-stereotypical way. Written and directed by Mike Mills (whose previous directorial effort, Thumbsucker was critically acclaimed) and loosely based on his own experiences, Beginners is one of those films where the performances can make it or break it. Academy Award nominee Christopher Plummer plays Hal Fields, while Ewan McGregor plays his son Oliver whose believable performances make this a unique film.

Seeing it at a theatre full of people anxious to see the Plummer’s excellent performance, hours prior to the Modern Master Award reception at the Arlington, added to the experience, as a nomination from the Academy, oftentimes, helps movies like this one reach a larger audience that may not have heard of it. The film is told from Oliver Fields’ point of view, as he is dealing with his own personal relationship problems in the form of a new girlfriend and his inability to maintain a relationship, while at the same time dealing with this new version of his father. The new bond they form seems to be helping his own problems, as, like his father, Oliver has lived his own version of an unhappy life in unhappy relationships.  Now Oliver is seeing his father, the happiest he’s ever been, having come out of the closet after his wife’s death.

The movie makes an interesting juxtaposition between the “illness” of being gay, which is deadly and has cursed Hal with happiness, and his other pest of an illness, namely, terminal cancer, which Hal cleverly downplays.  He is supposed to be crippled and paralyzed by each “illness”, and somehow you get the feeling in the movie that the “gayness disease” is far more deadly and terrifying than the Stage 4 cancer Hal refuses to succumb to.  It is almost as if the “disease” of gayness, provides the necessary happiness to outlive cancer yet another day.

The main attraction of this movie is both of the leads performances, McGregor has shown a knack for playing the naïve/shy American that most people can relate to, while Plummer gets to play against time with his “cool dad” persona now that he’s living the life he always wanted, dating a much younger man and becoming a party man.

The change that goes between both characters, from McGregor’s recollections of his father, forming a new relationship with him and his new girlfriend, coping with the knowledge that his father is dying and the bond that they form is one of the strongest parts of the film, as it is both believable and dramatic. Seeing the pain in Oliver’s eyes as his father is dying, is what makes this movie extra special.

Beginners is one of my favorite movies featured this year at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival; to have Plummer’s performance nominated is one of the only good things that the Academy has done right this year. Hopefully Beginners will come back to theatres, to be watched the way it was intended to, since this is a movie that can be liked by almost anybody, and those who don’t agree with the subject matter may also be able to learn from it, accept it and hopefully be more understanding, after all, this is a movie about family, relationships, and issues, and who doesn’t have one?