From the Film Reel: Beginners

"Tell her the darkness will drown us unless something drastic happens right now."

"Beginners" (2010) by Mike Mills is a movie based on a man, Oliver(McGregor) learning about life through the discovery of his fathers' since hidden sexual orientation and a new love in his life. The film's theme being that we never stop being 'beginners' in life no matter how old or young we are.

I found beginners to be a beautiful poignent gem of a film, dealing from an extremely personal situation in a highly transient state in one's life through a subjective lens. Not to mention great performances by ex-Capt von Trapp, Christopher Plummer and Arthur, the little Jack Russell terrier cross who, with his witty one-line anecdotes saved its somewhat flow-on-end moments of poignacny which seemed at times, uneccessary. What I appreciated about the film was the incorporation of Mills' artistic background, with many segments conveying a situation through the use of graphic images sequenced one after the other. I especially enjoyed the ragtime and early Jazz Soundtrack, in particular the Hoagy Carmichael's Jazz standard "Stardust" rare vocal track.

Hoagy Carmichael's "Stardust" sold me on "Beginners".