A sweet and touching film, "Beginners" tells the story of Oliver Fields (Ewan MacGregor), a man in his late 30s who learns that his recently widowed 75 year-old father (Christopher Plummer) has terminal cancer—and is gay. The movie focuses on Oliver's attempts to understand these revelations as he navigates a new relationship with a complicated French actress Anna (Mélanie Laurent) and an even more complicated Jack Russell terrier named Arthur, whom Oliver inherits after his father's death and who refuses to leave Oliver's side. Ultimately, this becomes a film about opportunities for love that we seize and that we squander and the myriad lingering effects of our responses to these opportunities. "Beginners" is a small film with a big heart and a profound understanding of emotions.
Review of Beginners
