It may be the height of summer but that doesn’t mean our cinema-going choices are restricted to wizards & robots beating the hell out of each other. No, as is the way with every blockbuster season, a few smaller low-budget movies always pop up, often doing well through counter-marketing or good word of mouth. From the outset, Beginners certainly looks like one of those movies, as it’s as small-scale a movie you’ll see this summer season.
MIke Mills got great acclaim when he directed indie picture ‘Thumbsucker’ a few years ago, and despite the almost overbearing hype around it, I loved it. Indie movies can be spectacularly hit & miss – often they’ll be so dry you forget they’re meant to entertain – but Thumbsucker really stood out as an original and touching movie. I’m glad to say that Beginners, which is heavily autobiographical, is very much in the same vein.
Like Thumbsucker, Beginners is a film that absolutely revels in character study. The main character, Oliver (Ewan McGregor) is looking back on the lives of his parents and how his late father (Christopher Plummer) embraced his homosexuality when Oliver grew up. At the same time, Oliver is seeing Anna (Melanie Laurent), clearly frustrated at his failure to keep a relationship going before.
Seeing as much of the film is flashback, we’re invited to study and enjoy the characters a lot more and the actual story plays second fiddle. In many films, this would be a disaster but here, much like in Lost in Translation, these are people you like and want to see more of. Christopher Plummer gives an incredibly touching performance as a man who, essentially only embraces who he is near the end of his life. His excitement and happiness at coming out as gay is at odds with Oliver, who clearly isn’t sure how to completely handle it. But Beginners is not a dark or depressing drama about secrets or family – if anything it is the opposite, showing characters that gradually learn more about themselves through their family.
The cast is largely excellent, McGregor and Plummer having wonderful chemistry together despite the largely contrasting characters. The dynamic between the two even brought to mind Billy Crudup and Albert Finney in Big Fish, believe it or not! Whilst that’s a wildly different film, there are similar themes of father-son relationships here that may be familar. It has a great sense of humour too – however those in search of a laugh out-loud comedy may want to look elsewhere. Instead of short-changing a scene or character in order to get a cheap laugh, Beginners has a quiet and relaxed tone throughout, with an added dollop of wit and emotion included. In fact, it brings to mind some of the more light-hearted works of Woody Allen both in tone and technique, and you can’t pay higher tribute than that!
Beginners won’t set the box office alight and will never compete with the big comedies of the year, but that is not it’s place. If you’re looking for a smart, well written film that explores the often unconventional aspects of people’s relationships (family or otherwise) though, this is a tough one to beat.
