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Perfect cast and a good story

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

The thing about watching a movie with a conflicted principal character is that I generally want to kick them in the butt to get them moving in the right direction. Ewan McGregor's Oliver in this story kept spinning his wheels in the relationship with Anna (Melanie Laurent), even when it looked like he might have been having fun. After a while, it began to affect Anna, that's her quote above in my summary line.The one who genuinely knew what he was doing was Oliver's father Hal, wonderfully performed by Christopher Plummer. His was the kind of role in a popular film that forever after makes you wonder if the man is still alive or not, like Burgess Meredith in the 'Rocky' movies. I just looked him up, and he's still going strong at eighty seven, with four movies in post-production.I liked Plummer in this film, his portrayal of a gay man coming out after the death of his wife of forty five years was handled with a sincerity that could have been over the top if handled by a different film maker. My understanding is that writer and director Mike Mills had a similar life experience with his own father which formed the basis of this story. With that understanding, he would have had some valuable insight.Back to Oliver - seriously, you've got to ditch that hideous wall poster of 'Siedem Razy Kobieta'. Even though this was a movie, seeing it hanging in the living room seriously upset my personal feng shui. If you couldn't make the whole thing out, it was the Polish theatrical poster for Shirley MacLaine's film "Woman Times Seven". How that fit into Oliver's life I couldn't tell you, but it caused me some pain.This movie probably won't appeal to everyone. Even today, there's some resistance to the idea of gay characters in film though that's changing daily. As I stated earlier, the subject is handled maturely without being offensive, and the movie fairly conveys a live and let live philosophy. A hint for Oliver, learn to live a little.

It's a pretty sad movie. Tells the story of a man who lost his father first and then his mother. Her mother is a solid character, does not care about anyone and becomes a great role model for the child, but she is unhappy in her because her husband can not meet expectations.After the mother is killed, the father feels rebirth. He confesses that his son is gay and finds the opportunity to live the life he wants to live only at the age of 75. From this point of view it becomes a "beginner".The main boy places the failure of his parents in the center of his life, and attaches to it, saying, "How can I not be so unhappy," so that superficial relationships prefer to live. Until it comes to Melanie.Melanie seems to see her mother. She is not wearing anybody until at least her mother is as crazy as her mother. Melanie is not accustomed to holding a crucifix, but Melanie is undecided. He can not easily put anchor, he does not even hear the necessity of placing the items in his drawer. Both of which become "beginners". The way people are easily coming to the brink of being separated from such small details, the director.Also the main girl in this film was not designed as french but when she saw that Melanie could not correct her accent she directed the role towards her. For example, it's great to start counting french times when you get angry. As a fan of Melanie Laurent, I watch this woman just watch the screen and watch her for two hours without a laugh. Christopher Plummer has taken the best supporting actor oskarin with this film, indeed he has taken the wisdom. It is how nature is so natural, as if we had seen a real father-son's life. Also Chris does not exaggerate the concept of gay in the body, his self-assured posture, the audience, "do not think too much to let go of my son" attitude.Finally, the film içinde music, especially the pianos, started to play. I watched him constantly thinking that the music was "yann Tirane" but he was not. I already know that the quality of Filmin is getting more and more more when it enters such piano. The fonder is a tranquil tale of the main boy, a beautiful package that comes out as a result of the story supported by the photographs, but it is still the ones who do not like it.   The two most important factors that guide a person's life are parents. When one of these is missing, that person's life is starting to enter a different path. Of course, only those who live in this situation know. Perhaps that's why I've watched it twice in a row.Whatever life is going on.

There is one truth that Mike Mills' "Beginners" quietly and patiently explores, which is that many people know exactly who they are, what they want and even what they need to be happy, and yet, for some reason, never try to fulfill these very needs, lacking courage, honesty or maybe is the act of recognition significant enough not to move forward? Either ways, they are their own collateral damages.Or maybe I'm looking at the half-empty glass, and the message of "Beginners" is that it's never too late to start a new life and make your dreams come true. But tone-wise, I'm not sure the film is an invitation for optimism, there are a few shades of happiness in a few episodes of the father's life but the main feeling is one of a big waste of time for pointless misunderstandings. Indeed, there are many moments in "Beginners" when you don't exactly know why things have escalated so negatively, except if you accept that some happy events can reveal sadder truths and vice versa.But I'm talking too abstractly and make the film sound like some philosophical essay. "Beginners" is actually based on Mike Mills' life, for what it's worth, but we're all free to tell our stories and this one has a catching set-up. Mills' parents were born in the 20's, they belonged to generation where family and love where conditioned by very strict and specific archetypes. After his mother's death in the 90's, his father revealed that he was gay ever since he was married, and the couple lived and built a family on that secret. The father lived a few years in an openly gay life before succumbing to cancer. Now, the question is why did he wait such a long time to come out of the closet?It is a legitimate question because in the 80's and 90's, people embraced homosexuality and let's face it, a man who's interested in men can never be a proper lover to his wife, so why preventing her from a satisfying sexual life? The movie doesn't give direct answers but we see the effects this life made of secrets and lies had on the son: Oliver (Ewan McGregor), a perpetually malcontent artist, incapable to live relationships to their terms. He doesn't drink or do drugs, he has a steady job and a nice apartment, but somewhat he seems incapable to get over a constant state of dissatisfaction. And the film is as much about his sadness (the word sad is quite recurring) than about his father's happiness."Beginners" is made of three intersected stories, one about Oliver's childhood where he spent most of the time with his mother, a free-spirited unconventional woman with some weird habits like pretending to shoot Oliver so he acts dead, Hal's cancer-stricken twilight of life, and his death's aftermath with Oliver trying to pull himself together and find a girl in his life. The only link to his father is his memories and a cute Jack Russell terrier named Arthur, a dog who talks in subtitles and seems to know the hidden truths about Oliver; a little gimmick not overused enough to undermine the film's realism.The story swings back and forth between these time-lines and the only real bits of happiness belong to Hal, this is a man who totally found himself at 75, and lived the last four years of his life to the fullest. Maybe it's because he knew more than anyone the burden of secrecy that he could finally implode all his repressed feelings and lived a life of joy. But again, why wait until you become a frail old man? Maybe it took the marriage to know exactly what went wrong and try to fix it, and maybe it's because Oliver doesn't know what's wrong with him that the situations seems more hopeless. The film is like a time travel in different societies, each one with its own approach to happiness, marriage and priorities. Oliver's parents belonged to a time where war was a priority, where having a house and a job wasn't to be taken for granted, where people fought for their rights. Oliver and Anna, his French love interest, played by Mélanie Laurent, had everything served on a silver platter, they're open-minded, but they never experienced privations and repressions, and perhaps, this is what goes wrong with our whole generation, if we knew what we were missing, we would know what we need.Oliver doesn't know how to be happy, but this isn't a caprice of some sort, it's a true disability to share and communicate. And I guess the point that "Beginners" tries to make is that we can't experience the exhilaration of something without having lived in its core its absence. When Oliver lives some joyful instants with his father, it's maybe to make up for the lack of warmth that structured his childhood, having a father that is finally true to himself, paved the way to a new life, even for him. Mike Mills would also reveal that his father's coming out opened a whole new perspective in his life and created an even richer relationship with his father.And without Hal, it's up to Oliver to find out what kind of life he wants to build, and the existential block he goes through is like suspending dots… we can provide answers but we know the right mindset to have. "Beginners" is an interesting existential movie that proves that sometimes, happiness is about filling gaps, but one must have to experience these gaps to identify them, that's the catch. The film's minimalist format and the great performances especially from Christopher Plummer makes it easier to follow, but sometimes, the film is victim of its tricky subject.Indeed, if the feeling of wasted time and boredom reflects the viewer's opinion, it might be because the film worked way too well for its own good.

The movie is not deep but touched the edges of stern issues in lives. It's not really what I thought would be before watched it. But it gave me some fresh air. The story is surrounding a supposing nice guy who has his own piques from his childhood and his parents' dysfunctional marriage. The ambiguities and clandestineness made him timid to his own relationship. His father was a closet gay who I feel his selfishness almost cost his son's well-deserved love relationship. I can see the director steered that part away and turn it into a positive enforcement.We often sympathized those married closet homosexual people. I think we blame the society doesn't accept them with open arms so they had to marry to hide their sexuality. Nevertheless, we rarely are at their spouses' points of views. You also could say they made their own bed so sleep on it. It might as well be true. But those unaware spouses and their children would become innocent victims under it. So by saying love conquers all which would be improbably applied in those cases.This is not a movie looking into deep issues by just brushing around lightly. It's fine when you are a bystander. However, I would like to see more insights if there would be some.