Beginners (2011)

A bit of a downer of a film about a man (Ewan McGregor) who's mother dies, and shortly thereafter his father (Christopher Plummer) reveals that he is gay. A couple years after that, his father is diagnosed with terminal cancer and dies. McGregor spends much of the movie kind of sadly moping around, but his spirit is brightened occasionally by a girl he meets at a party he didn't want to go to, and his dad's dog, Arthur. They begin a serious relationship, but it starts to follow the same pattern that all of his other past relationships have followed. Is he wise enough to make a change? How does his dead gay father effect his outlook on life?

It' s a good movie, but a bit too gloomy for my tastes. Christopher Plummer continues to find great roles as an aging legend, and McGregor actually does an American accent really well, something I've never really heard him do (I'm sure he's done it before, but I haven't seen a lot of his artier fare). It has a lot of the conventions of "indie art movie," and some people are probably going to hate it for that (cutesy first meeting, slow narrative, a scene with roller skates, crying on the bed, gay couples, etc.), but overall it gets the job done.

RATING: 3/5