Rarely do you have a film like Beginners. It is a film that works on mostly every level and is so wonderfully simple in its complexity. Graphic designer Oliver (Ewan McGregor) meets a free-spirited actress named Anna (Mélanie Laurent) after his father, Hal (Christopher Plummer) has passed away. As Oliver gets to know Anna he realizes that he is very much inexperienced in the prospect of a long-lasting romantic relationship. Oliver's memories of his father, who, following the death of his wife of 45 years came out of the closet to lead a full, energized and wonderful life and possibly encourage Oliver to find a woman and do the same and find true happiness. Oliver ends up taking in Hal's dog, named Arthur who can understand up to 150 words but does not talk except in subtitles. It is unclear as to whether the words at the bottom of the screen are what the dog is thinking or just what Oliver decides the dog would say if he could. One thing does remain clear and that's the fact that Arthur is the only character in the film that truly has a good bead on his life and is able to be happy with no effort at all.
The film moves from time period to time period with surprising finesse and fluidity. All too often a filmmaker attempts to do this in a way that is fresh and doesn't annoy the audience and fails in their attempt. Writer/director Mike Mills succeeds by presenting all the flashbacks as Oliver's memories. This allows the audience to feel comfortable with the seemingly random jumping around because the human mind recalls memories at random. The script really doesn't feel chaotic as one would expect or would easily happen. Oliver's narration in the film provides the set up by saying, "this is 2003. This is nature and the stars and the president and movies. This is what happy looks like in 1955. This was smoking etc."
The three leads (McGregor, Laurent and Plummer) all deliver great performances in the film with special mention going to the perfection of Christopher Plummer in his now Oscar-nominated role. As Hal he is a cheerful and simple man that is surprisingly transparent. He does not overplay the stereotypical gay man but instead plays it as a man who is finally being true to what he is. This makes Plummer's performance one of his most human performances. I do admit that although I have only seen her in one other film (Inglorious Basterds) I predict and expect great things to come from Laurent throughout her career in the US. I guarantee that she will bring many other great performances in the future.
One of the things that bothered me the whole film though was the musical score. Don't get your dander up. I do not say that I necessarily disliked the score as much as it's placement in the film. It feels out of place in this film. It is almost as though composer Roger Neill wrote the music for another film and decided to put it to use here. Although pleasant to listen to by itself it simply does not fit here. Still the film is so wonderfully made on every other level so I suppose in the grand scheme of things the issues I have with the music are a minor inconvenience.
★★★1/2
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