Oscar Week: Beginners
Christopher Plummer, damn that man is attractive. While I don’t want to objectify a truly talented man, if you didn’t look at him as Captain Georg Johannes von Trapp in The Sound of Music and feel a quiver in your loins. Of course, that’s until you learn that he was an alcoholic cad who forced the wonderful Julie Andrews to practically tell him to fuck off. And all because, frankly, he was bored of the character. In recent years, the older he gets, the more refined and respectful roles come to him. At 82 he was the oldest ever actor to win an Academy Award and he did so with this, Beginners, which helped him win the Best Supporting Actor in 2012.
Beginners also stars Ewan McGregor as Oliver Fields who recounts the life of his father, Hal (Plummer), after his recent death. The death of Oliver’s mother causes Hal to admit that he is actually homosexual. Able to pursue the life he has always wanted to, this beginner into the world of homosexuality (well, open homosexuality) is helped by the earnest Oliver supporting his father’s decision. This is juxtaposed with the after death care and his new found love interest in Georgia (Melanie Laurent.)
This movie is by far the quaintest movie of recent years. If you are a huge fan of Spike Jonzes’ Her this year then look back at 2010’s Beginners that is just as sweet and tender. Directed by Mike Mills (who also did Thumbsucker which is high on my list of movies to do,) he blends the past, the present in this interesting narrative. Told through a series of flash backs, narration and polaroid flip moments, the airs of melancholy and hope twist together in this wonderful drama. It doesn’t miss a beat and entangles that sorrow after a death and that all of a sudden life change.
The performances really power through despite McGregors off beat American Accent (that reappeared this year for August: Osage County.) It becomes less about the homosexuality and how Oliver and his family, both mother and father, navigated the world with this utter sincerity. Never putting their own emotions first, when the mother dies that is the only time when Hal feels free to reconnoitre his sexuality. Neither Plummer nor McGregor over power one another and it becomes a wonderful exploration of time and their own connection. But yes, it’s Plummer’s performance that soars here, playing death and life perfectly well.
Many have complained that this is style over substance. Frankly, it is a harmonious combination of the both; seeped in imagery and poignant, beauty and heart, pain and healing. It’s a reconnection with the spirit; finding the true self and running with it. The sorrow is well played, the love isn’t over hammed and even the romance between Laurent and McGregor simmers with this humanistic moments. Beginners is a treasure and a comfort, certainly will pick you up after a harsh Winters day, wrap its centre around you and never lets you go.
TTFN
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