The first fifteen or so minutes of Beginners was full of such sweet promise that I couldn't wait to tuck into the rest of the movie. Ewan McGregor and Melanie Laurent have beautiful chemistry and the performances are even more beautiful because Melanie Laurent's character has laryngitis and she communicates only with her eyes, smile and notepad. The little dog, Arthur, is a delight whenever he's on screen, and he has huge chemistry with his owner. There's a few incredibly well written lines, especially Mills' decision to place dialogue captions over Arthur's piercing eye contact.
Christopher Plummer has a very showy part as a life-loving, cancer-stricken, openly gay old man. That, and the fact that 82 year old Plummer had only chalked up a single nomination in his career, are the reasons he won the Oscar in 2011. That's not to say that Plummer isn't good, because he does a good job, but compared to performances like Jonah Hill (Moneyball) as well as unnominated work by Ryan Philippe (The Lincoln Lawyer), Stellan Skarsgard (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and half the cast of Midnight in Paris, Plummer comes up short. His performance in Danny Collins is far superior in every way.
This film had no business being 105 minutes long. Some things that are sweet at first become grating. Even Melanie Laurent can't keep me engrossed in the film as she and McGregor go through their inevitable love story. The editing of the film does much to create confusion. I don't know why this film is set in 2003, but for a viewer the timeline jumping can be confusing if we don't know that 2003 is the film's present day.
Beginners serves as a reminder than Melanie Laurent is a treasure who should be in more movies, but little else.
Christopher Plummer has a very showy part as a life-loving, cancer-stricken, openly gay old man. That, and the fact that 82 year old Plummer had only chalked up a single nomination in his career, are the reasons he won the Oscar in 2011. That's not to say that Plummer isn't good, because he does a good job, but compared to performances like Jonah Hill (Moneyball) as well as unnominated work by Ryan Philippe (The Lincoln Lawyer), Stellan Skarsgard (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and half the cast of Midnight in Paris, Plummer comes up short. His performance in Danny Collins is far superior in every way.
This film had no business being 105 minutes long. Some things that are sweet at first become grating. Even Melanie Laurent can't keep me engrossed in the film as she and McGregor go through their inevitable love story. The editing of the film does much to create confusion. I don't know why this film is set in 2003, but for a viewer the timeline jumping can be confusing if we don't know that 2003 is the film's present day.
Beginners serves as a reminder than Melanie Laurent is a treasure who should be in more movies, but little else.