'Beginners' review

Christopher Plummer and Ewan McGregor (Credit: Focus)

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After four decades in a frosty and dispassionate marriage, 74-year-old widower Hal (Christopher Plummer) throws his son Oliver (Ewan McGregor) for a loop when he announces he's gay. Much to Oliver's amusement, Hal quickly wears his gay pride with gusto—putting out suggestive personal ads, snagging a younger boyfriend (Goran Visnjic), and living it up in ways that Oliver hadn't thought possible. After Hal is diagnosed with cancer and eventually succumbs to it, Oliver confronts his own emotional ambivalence as he slowly grows closer to itinerant actress Anna (Melanie Laurent), a beguiling but wispy beauty who keys into Oliver's lingering sadness.

The buzz: Writer-director Mike Mills ("Thumbsucker") based the story on his own experience with his father, who came out while in his seventies before passing away from cancer. The film debuted to glowing reviews at last year's Toronto Film Festival, and although it's still too early to call out any major contenders at next year's awards races, veteran actor Plummer—who only recently received his first Oscar nomination, for 2009's "The Last Station"—has already been making prognosticators' shortlists.

The verdict: Personal memoirs can be dicey, saccharine-baiting affairs, and Mills has said he wanted to be cautious about presenting a story that felt honest and unsentimental. He's pulled that off elegantly with this stirring, finely tuned ode to family, fulfillment and new beginnings. "Beginners" takes on the tricky task of working simultaneously on several levels—as a coming-out journey, a father-son story, a study about gay milieus, and a romance. Mills melds them together with delicate skill, deftly jumping between past and present, elation and melancholy. At one point, Hal tells Oliver he's gay; shortly after, he's on his deathbed. One moment, Oliver playfully roller-skates through a hotel lobby with Anna; the next, he packs up his dad's things. The result is not a linear transcription of cause-and-effect plot points, but rather an indelible impression: a Monet-like swoosh of moments and cues less preoccupied with detail than the strong emotions they'll elicit. As tender as the film is, though, its romantic thread feels faintly realized; you never quite understand Anna or the motivations behind her actions, a stark contrast to the emotional fluency of the rest of "Beginners." Credit Plummer for that—the film is his showcase, and he's caustic, charming and richly present. Perhaps the sweet irony of it all isn't lost on Plummer. After years as a deeply respected if unheralded thespian, he continues his late-in-life surge by playing a late-in-life bloomer finally getting his due.

Did you know? Plummer faces stiff competition from a scene-stealing co-star. Expect much of the post-screening chatter to focus on Hal's adorable Jack Russell terrier, who has conversations with Oliver via quirky subtitles.

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