Beginners movie review & film summary (2011)
Oliver, played by the engaging Ewan McGregor, is an artist whose work, apparently successful, communicates a reluctance to be sure and bold. His father, Hal, is played by Christopher Plummer as a man who arrived at an agreement with his late wife, Georgia (Mary Page Keller), many years ago and has been true to it. He has always known he is gay, and his revelation to his son conveys pride, relief and a kind of joy. Perhaps he has arrived at an age when only his son could be expected to care about this unexpected information.
The film moves easily with three time frames. There is the period between his father's announcement and his own death a few years later, the period in Oliver's life after the death, and flashbacks to Oliver's memories of childhood. If we must extract a meaning from "Beginners," it may be that it is never too late to make a fresh start, and the father sets an example for his son.
Christopher Plummer, an actor filled with presence and grace, brings a dignified joy to his new gay lifestyle. He delights in the gay pride rainbow, dances in clubs, throws parties and introduces Oliver to his boyfriend, Andy (Goran Visnjic). This Andy is so improbably handsome that the liaison seems unlikely, but we grow convinced that Andy truly and deeply loves the old man, with a fullness that almost shames Oliver. The film pays due attention to Hal's happiness and to the process of his death, which he approaches with the consolation that at last there is nothing he must keep secret.
Some months later, deep in idleness and distraction, sad in his bones, Oliver attends a costume party dressed as Freud. He stations himself next to a sofa and acquires a patient named Anna (Melanie Laurent). She communicates by writing notes in little spiral notebooks. She can't speak because she has laryngitis. In a curious sense, her notes and the dog's subtitles convey the same kinds of bottom-line observation: "Why," she writes, "did you come to a party when you were so sad?" She knows that he is sad, just as a dog doesn't need to be told such things.
