Beginners, the story of a man finding new beginnings in his life after unexpected changes, bereavement and new love, is the second feature from director Mike Mills, a man so unattainably hip that the French band Air, for whom he’s directed numerous music videos, named a track on one of their albums after him.
Mills’ film is a semi-autobiographical story revolving around Ewan McGregor’s Oliver, weighed down by grief following the death of his father Hal (Christopher Plummer), from lung cancer at 80 years of age, five years after Hal revealed himself to be gay. Still bereft and caring for his father’s Jack Russell terrier, who poses subtitled questions throughout, Oliver may just find solace in the shape of French actress Anna, herself no stranger to daddy issues. But this relationship forces him to confront deeper issues concerning the very nature of love, from his parent’s marriage in the 1970s through to his father’s short-lived experiences in the gay community and his romance with Goran Visnjic’s Andy.
