Review: Beginners

Christopher Plummer & Ewan McGregor in The Beginners.

As a Focus Features fan, I first heard of Beginners when it was released back in 2011 but didn't actually see it until recently. I was hooked within the first ten minutes by the second photomontage, which flashed photographs of various objects and events from both 1955 and 2003. I found the film so entertaining in its simplicity and warmth. I smiled and laughed, fell in love with the characters—a definite requisite for anything I watch—and even cried alongside them. But I was as much engaged by the story-telling as the story itself, since Beginners frankly explores cinema as a way to address the problems of blending autobiography and fiction in a personal narrative.

The film follows two transformative threads of Oliver Fields’ life (played by Ewan McGregor): one being the relationship with his father, Hal (Christopher Plummer), and the other with his new romantic interest, an actress named Anna (Mélanie Laurent). After Oliver’s mother passed away, Hal reveals he had always been gay and is going to finally embrace that lifestyle wholeheartedly. Oliver must come to terms not only with his father’s busy new social life--and much younger boyfriend--but with Hal’s cancer diagnosis as well. After Hal dies, Oliver experiences the highs and lows of life that come with his romance with Anna even as he copes with the loss of his father.

Beginners has a little bit of everything: drama, comedy, romance, and a foundation in real life. It's common knowledge that writer-director Mike Mills used his own experience with his father, who had also revealed his homosexuality after his wife’s death, as a source for the film. I found Mills’ script completely genuine and believable, even in the sections where Oliver converses with his father's dog. It's clear to the viewer that the dog's responses--presented as subtitles--are happening in Oliver's imagination. Moments like these bring real humanity as well as the sweet balance of comedy to Oliver’s grief.

Mills’ use of multimedia to create a scrapbooked component also sets this film apart from others. Between the two narrative threads, he weaves in graphics like photomontages voiced over by McGregor that contextualize the simultaneity and similarity of the storylines and their place in time. This effect is both existential and personal, moving the film to a deeper level while adding to its entertainment value. 

In addition to Mills’ personal experiences, the photomontage effect really brings the grey area between autobiography and fiction to the forefront. With the film's 2011 release, it is easy to forget that the second thread takes place in 2003, already placing the characters in a kind of period piece, and then even farther back before Hal’s death and in Oliver’s childhood. It was the inclusion of photos from 1955 that reminded me that the film is conceived as a memoir, whether or not it reveals a true-life story. The narratives appear to be told and lived in real time, but, in actuality, as with memoir, reflect a double telling: by Oliver as a character and Mike Mills the writer-director. Everything that we see is subject to their memories and perceptions of events, which I find to be a very interesting play on the way we remember.

The theme of perception also plays out graphically through graffiti that Oliver and his friends spray all over Los Angeles. The lens through which we see our own life events also extends to how we see history around us. Rather than draw something vulgar, Oliver tags contemporary events on the walls, drawing attention to how popular culture and the media impact our perception. Each statement is a marker of a moment in time, and thus an eventual part of history. We often forget that we are not only looking back on history, but are part of it, shaping it, all the time.

I highly recommend Beginners--even if you are not looking for a cinematic exploration of autobiography, memory, and perception, the cast brings a delightful story to life, making this a movie not to be missed.

Watch the trailer below: