*ing: Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer, Mélanie Laurent
6 months after the death of his wife, 75 years-old Hal Fields (Christopher Plummer) announces to his son that he is gay. He finds himself a gay partner through personal ad in the newspaper and is delighted to wear gay pride scarf. His happy days of living as gay last only 4 years. Now, Hal Fields is no more. He died recently because of cancer. But Beginners is not about Hal Fields but his son Oliver Fields (Ewan McGregor) who is an artist by profession. Oliver is living a lonely life and always avoiding long-term relationship with any girl. He expresses his thoughts/sadness through his drawings and he finds fun in painting his “historical consciousness” on the walls of streets at night.
Through the constant flashbacks, Beginners depicts Oliver’s relationship with his mother when he was a kid and his relation with his dying gay father during his last days. Few months after his father’s death, Oliver goes to a fancy dress party assuming the appearance of Sigmund Freud. This is where he meets laryngitis-stricken Anna (Mélanie Laurent), sitting on couch posing as his patient. They start conversing by making notes on a small spiral notebook. Very soon, we see relation blossoming between them.
His new girlfriend Anna is just the female-version of Oliver in terms of the attitude towards the relationship. Oliver’s aversion toward the commitment in a relationship comes from the hardships he has seen his half-Jewish mother go through in her lonely married life.
Beginners, Mike Mills’ second directorial effort (in movies), through Oliver’s voice-over also mildly talks about gay-rights movement and condition of gays during 1950’s in the US when being gay was considered “mental illness” and the woes of a gay through Hal’s gay partner Andy whose father, it seems, does not talk to him because of his sexual orientation.
Everyone including dog Arthur shine in their performances. Christopher Plummer as the man, who after 44 years of marriage finally comes out of the closet, provides lighter moments in the movie. Mélanie Laurent, also seen in Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds, not only handles her part effectively but by also looking extremely beautiful all through the movie makes a perfect eye candy.
But it is extremely-underrated Ewan McGregor who steals the attention with his portrayal of a lonely artist who is not sure about his relationship with his girlfriend. Though Plummer has more colorful role it is McGregor’s performance that wins the heart.
Oliver’s mother’s character has not been properly etched out. The drawback of this movie lies in its failure to explain why she was still holding on to the marriage despite the marriage clearly seeming unsuccessful. But all in all, Beginners is a heartwarming movie which will not disappoint you.
My rating:
No comments:
Post a Comment