Beginners is a 2010 American
comedy-dramaComedy-drama is a genre of theatre, film and television programs which combines humorous and serious content.-Theatre:Traditional western theatre, beginning with the ancient Greeks, was divided into comedy and tragedy...
film written and directed by
Mike MillsMichael C. "Mike" Mills is an American film and music video director and graphic designer. He is perhaps best known for his independent films Thumbsucker and Beginners.-Early life:...
. It tells the story of Oliver (
Ewan McGregorEwan Gordon McGregor is a Scottish actor. He has had success in mainstream, indie, and art house films. McGregor is perhaps best known for his roles as heroin addict Mark Renton in the drama Trainspotting , young Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequel trilogy , and poet Christian in the...
), a man reflecting on the life and death of his father while trying to forge a new romantic relationship with a woman dealing with father issues of her own.
Beginners premiered at the 2010
Toronto International Film FestivalThe Toronto International Film Festival is a publicly-attended film festival held each September in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In 2010, 339 films from 59 countries were screened at 32 screens in downtown Toronto venues...
, where
The Los Angeles Times heralded it as a "heady, heartfelt film" with a cast who has "a strong sense of responsibility to their real-world counterparts".
Plot
The film is structured as a series of interconnected
flashbacksFlashback is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story’s primary sequence of events or to fill in crucial backstory...
. Following the death of his father Hal, Oliver reflects on his relationship with him following the death of Oliver's mother Georgia. Shortly after her death Hal came out as gay to his son and began exploring that aspect of his life. Hal finds a boyfriend, Andy, and surrounds himself with a circle of gay friends. Hal is then diagnosed with terminal cancer. Following an extended illness during which Oliver helps care for him, Hal dies.
Several months after Hal's death, Oliver meets Anna, a French actress, at a party and they begin a relationship. Oliver's unresolved emotions around his father's death and his parents' life together, along with Anna's conflicted feelings about her emotionally unstable father, initially interfere with their relationship but they resolve to stay together.
Cast
- Ewan McGregor
Ewan Gordon McGregor is a Scottish actor. He has had success in mainstream, indie, and art house films. McGregor is perhaps best known for his roles as heroin addict Mark Renton in the drama Trainspotting , young Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequel trilogy , and poet Christian in the...
as Oliver
- Christopher Plummer
Arthur Christopher Orne Plummer, CC is a Canadian theatre, film and television actor. He made his film debut in 1957's Stage Struck, and notable early film performances include Night of the Generals, The Return of the Pink Panther and The Man Who Would Be King.In a career that spans over five...
as Hal, Oliver's father.
- Mélanie Laurent
Mélanie Laurent is a French actress, director, singer and writer. She is best known to international audiences for her role as Shosanna Dreyfus in Quentin Tarantino's 2009 film Inglourious Basterds, for which she won Best Actress from the Online Film Critics Society and the Austin Film Critics...
as Anna, a French actress with whom Oliver begins a love affair.
- Goran Višnjić
Goran Višnjić is a Croatian actor who has appeared in American and British films and television productions. He is best known for his role as Dr. Luka Kovač in the hit television series ER...
as Andy, Hal's much-younger lover.
- Kai Lennox as Elliot, Oliver's best friend and co-worker.
- Mary Page Keller
Mary Page Keller is an American actress known for roles on both daytime and primetime television.-Career:On daytime, Keller played the role of Amanda Kirkland on Ryan's Hope and the role of Sally Frame on Another World...
as Georgia, Oliver's mother.
- China Shavers
China Shavers is an American actress. She is also sometimes credited as China Jesushita Shavers usually for her larger roles. She's best known for her supporting roles as Brooke Harper on the high school drama Boston Public and as Dreama on the supernatural sitcom Sabrina, the Teenage...
as Shauna, Oliver's friend and co-worker.
- Lou Taylor Pucci
Lou Taylor Pucci is an American actor who first appeared on film in Rebecca Miller's well received Personal Velocity: Three Portraits in 2002....
as The Magician
- Keegan Boos as Young Oliver
- Cosmo
Cosmo is a canine actor. He is a Jack Russell Terrier that is best known for his roles in the movies Hotel for Dogs and Beginners. He was adopted from a breed rescue society by animal trainer Mathilda DeCagny.-Early life and career:...
as Arthur
Production
The film is based on the true-life coming out of Mills' father at the age of 75, five years before his death.
With cinematography by Kasper Tuxen,
Beginners was filmed with the Red One digital camera.
Reception
The film has received positive reviews upon release. At
MetacriticMetacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, which assigns a
normalizedIn statistics, a standard score indicates how many standard deviations an observation or datum is above or below the mean. It is a dimensionless quantity derived by subtracting the population mean from an individual raw score and then dividing the difference by the population standard deviation...
rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics,
Beginners received an
averageThe weighted mean is similar to an arithmetic mean , where instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others...
score of 81, based on 36 reviews, which indicates "universal acclaim reviews".
Roger EbertRoger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
of the
Chicago Sun-TimesThe Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four, saying "It's a hopeful fable with deep optimism and a cheerful style that kids itself." Allrovi (
All Media GuideAll Media Guide , is the company which owns and maintains Allmusic, Allgame and Allmovie. AMG was founded in 1990 by popular-culture archivist Michael Erlewine....
) called it "a life-affirming drama" and gave the film four-and-a-half stars out of five.
Beginners won the 2011
Gotham AwardThe 21st Annual Gotham Independent Film Awards will be presented on November 28, 2011.-Best Feature:Beginners The Tree of Life*The Descendants*Meek's Cutoff*Take Shelter-Best Ensemble Performance:...
for Best Feature, shared with
The Tree of Life.
External links