Beginners

This wonderful film, written and directed by Mike Mills, is essentially a love story. But to be more specific, I should say love stories. At the very beginning you meet Oliver (Ewan McGregor) who is cleaning up his fathers home after he has died from cancer. Olivers father, played by a fantastic Christopher Plummer, only a short time before his death and after his wife's passing, informs Oliver that he is gay, has been gay since he was 13 and now wants to explore this part of life that he has withheld for so long. The news shocks Oliver but accepts his fathers wish and supports him as he enjoys the finals months he has to live. You witness flashbacks of Oliver interacting with his father before he dies as well as time he spent with his mother, the sleeper character played by Mary Page Keller, when he was a child. In present time, set in 2003 Los Angeles, Oliver meets a french actress named Anna, played by the beautiful Mélanie Laurent, and before you know there are sparks of a new romantic relationship between the two. You watch the relationship between Oliver and Anna expand and extract with flashbacks of Olivers life before he met Anna, possibly an insight into why he seems so sad.

"Beginners" is a film where you watch ones journey dealing with love, life and death. The style that Mike Mills incorporates into this film works well, using voice over by Oliver on top of still images discussing what it was like in 1955 when his parents wed and what it is like in 2003. The style reminds me of something Wes Anderson and, as how Wes Anderson does so well, Mills delivers a journey for which you take with these characters. In the end you feel as if you know them personally, you walk into their lives and when it is all said and done, you want to see what happens down the road as they continue their journey.