Beginners | Little White Lies

Begin­ners

21 Jul 2011 / Released: 22 Jul 2011

Close-up of a couple embracing intimately, gazing at each other.
Close-up of a couple embracing intimately, gazing at each other.
3

Anticipation.

A strong cast, working with an uncommon concept.

2

Enjoyment.

Beginners drones along in a state of melancholic navel-gazing.

2

In Retrospect.

Despite a stand-out performance from an old pro, it keeps the audience at a distance.

Despite a stand-out per­for­mance from an old pro, Begin­ners keeps the audi­ence at a distance.

Despite hit­ting the age of 81, it seems that noth­ing is slow­ing down Christo­pher Plum­mer. He still man­ages to find bold, dis­tinc­tive roles that dodge the stereo­typ­i­cal cast­ing for old film folk, from voic­ing heart­bro­ken grouch Charles Muntz in Pixar’s Up, to appear­ing in the title role in The Imag­i­nar­i­um of Doc­tor Parnassus.

How­ev­er, while Begin­ners seems to be yet anoth­er show­case for the octo­ge­nar­i­an – here star­ring as Hal, a wid­ow­er who, in his final years, admits to his fam­i­ly that he’s gay – it is in fact sur­pris­ing­ly slip­pery, and some­what disappointing.

Begin­ners, the sopho­more effort from Thumb­suck­er writer/​director Mike Mills, focus­es on the man’s son, Oliv­er (Ewan McGre­gor), who sub­se­quent­ly has trou­ble com­ing to terms with his father’s death. Mills cre­ates a psy­cho­log­i­cal land­scape, mild­ly Prous­t­ian in its asso­ci­a­tions, in which Oliver’s mean­der­ings through the lives of both his par­ents fades into lit­tle glimpses of years pri­or. Mean­while, in the present, he makes ten­ta­tive moves towards his own emo­tion­al reha­bil­i­ta­tion by court­ing a coquet­tish French actress (Mélanie Laurent).

As if to remind view­ers of his own indie pedi­gree, Mills ties togeth­er these threads with a brood­ing nar­ra­tion from Oliv­er, illus­trat­ed with his own faux-naïf sketch­es from a book called The His­to­ry of Sad­ness’, and slideshows pro­vid­ing his­tor­i­cal con­text (“This is what pret­ty looked like in 1938!”). But these flash­es of style are of a piece with the film as a whole: Begin­ners is too often super­fi­cial, unable to tease any insight out of its com­pelling cen­tral conceit.

Per­haps it’s telling that where Begin­ners finds its most com­fort­able con­fig­u­ra­tion of com­plex­i­ty is in those flash­backs, where Oliver’s par­ents’ own idio­syn­crasies rise above quirk­i­ness. Mary Page Keller deserves more than the very minor role she has here, as a wife and moth­er bored out of her wits, with her fan­ci­ful, impul­sive rela­tion­ship with Oliv­er hint­ing at an inter­nalised torment.

How­ev­er, most delight­ful is Plum­mer. He rev­els in the camp of a char­ac­ter excit­ed­ly gob­bling up a pre­vi­ous­ly for­bid­den cul­ture, but he espe­cial­ly shines when bat­ting away the onset of can­cer with a still-hand­some grin, with­out mask­ing the mor­tal­i­ty behind it.

It is yet anoth­er prime late-peri­od per­for­mance from the star. If only Mills had giv­en us a more straight­for­ward look at this man’s life, instead of mere­ly exam­in­ing the remains.

You might like

Accessibility Settings

Text

Applies the Open Dyslexic font, designed to improve readability for individuals with dyslexia.

Applies a more readable font throughout the website, improving readability.

Underlines links throughout the website, making them easier to distinguish.

Adjusts the font size for improved readability.

Visuals

Reduces animations and disables autoplaying videos across the website, reducing distractions and improving focus.

Reduces the colour saturation throughout the website to create a more soothing visual experience.

Increases the contrast of elements on the website, making text and interface elements easier to distinguish.