Beginners

When I heard about the premise of this movie and then found out who was in it I thought it sounded interesting. An elderly man comes out of the closet to his adult son after the husbands wife and sons mother passes away. Now to me that sounded like a story just rife with potential hilarity as well as making a statement on society at large and while it does the latter, the hilarity is definitely missing. Don't get me wrong, this movie will make you laugh but the laughter causing moments are spread out thinly throughout the film.

Starring Ewan McGregor who plays Oliver, Christopher Plummer playing Hal , and Melanie Laurent who plays Anna Beginners is a slow moving movie about a father and son coming to grips with each other in the face of death and loss. Not told in straight ahead fashion but dominated by flashbacks director and writer Mike Mills deftly spins a yarn of a story around Oliver and all he's been through as a kid growing up in a house with no real love between his parents. He tells how growing up in that environment plays a major role in everything he does in his life as a man.

Hal married the quirky Georgia played by the very talented Mary Page Keller. She marries and has a kid with Hal even though she knows he's gay. In fact Hal has known he was gay since he was thirteen but he wants a piece of that American dream where the nice house, car in the garage, and children. He was afraid though that it could all be taken away if his homosexuality was to be discovered, so afraid in fact that he wouldn't even hold his own sons hand when out in public. Because Oliver grows up in such a dysfunctional household with parents who are clearly in a passionless relationship, when he comes across Anna he has no idea on how to make that relationship work.

When Georgia passes away Hal is now free to live the life he's always wanted to and can do so out in the open. He fully embraces the gay culture, makes a boatload of new gay friends and even places a personal ad to find a lover. He eventually finds Andy played by Goran Visnjic from E.R. fame and the two of them enjoy each others company until Hal dies. Before he does though, father and son finally develop that bond they never had when they were younger and it's through that bond that Oliver finally realizes that he can make choices. He can choose to be happy or sad and eventually Oliver chooses to be happy.

Christopher Plummer is great in this film and should be recognized come Oscar time (and I have never said ANYTHING like that before) but the real star of this movie is Athur, Hal's Jack Russel terrier. Played by "Cosmo the dog", Arthur is great and steals almost every scene he's in and while there are no real rewards for acting animals and their trainers, there really should be. Beginners is a well done film but it's trailer and posters are misleading, be warned it's not a "fun" or "funny" film at all but is definitely entertaining and a movie worth seeing. I'll see you at the theater.