“The excitement I get for smaller indie films is different than the one I get for the big blockbusters. I dont know how to explain it really. I suppose I feel more drawn to the characters and the hopes of a deep, moving story as opposed to a lot of flashy pretty stuff. I felt that way about Beginners. I was just dying to see it. Although Im sure Ewan McGregor was a big part of why I was psyched.
Okay here’s the quick recap for the majority of you who are scratching your heads at this movie. Ewan McGregor plays a guy who’s dealing with the recent loss of his father, played by Christopher Plummer. Plummer’s character came out as gay in his 70’s right after his wife passed. Soon after was when he was diagnosed as terminally ill. The film goes back and forth between two points in time centered around McGregor: 1-spending the last few years with his father, living his life to the fullest as a newly out and proud gay man, and 2-picking up the pieces of his life now that his father’s gone, and starting a new relationship with a girl he meets played by Melanie Laurent (one of the badass Inglorious Basterds babes).
The film was just so beautiful and so sad. I was crying through so much of it. The reason for the tears was how much the father reminded me of my Daddy, except for the whole homosexual thing, of course (although that did greatly appeal to my hag side). It was mostly in the way he chose to live his life without letting it be controlled by his illness, which in turn made the scenes where he was beated down by it that much stronger.
The cast was so strong. I fell in love with all three of those main characters. Their emotions all felt so real. I could hear sighs and cries all around me in the theater. As I left, I saw the girls who’d been sitting on the other end of my row sneak into the auditorium that had started the movie 45 minutes after our screening, just to be able to watch some of it again. I was kinda half tempted to follow.
Beginners – \m/ \m/ \m/ \m/