Last week we gave you a first look at Mike Mills’ “Beginners, a father/son drama and the follow-up to Mills’ 2005’s indie film, “Thumbsucker.”
It stars Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer and Melanie Laurent (“Inglourious Basterds”) and a few more stills have arrived. The film is about a 71-year-old father (Plummer) who comes out of the closet and triggers his son (McGregor) to explore the honesty of his own relationships.
More details below the jump that you may have read last time, but we now have a very expanded synopsis.
Here’s the TIFF synopsis: Here’s a more revealing synopsis:
“Five years after Thumbsucker, director Mike Mills returns to the Festival with another winning indie dramedy that balances humour, sorrow and romance with aplomb. Beginners deftly juggles two chronologies to tell the heartwarming story of two major points in the life of Oliver (Ewan McGregor), a talented illustrator.
One timeline follows the slow-burning deterioration of Oliver’s father (Christopher Plummer), who is dying of cancer. But his impending death is not the only news that has caught Oliver off guard; his divorced father, at the age of seventy-five, has also come out of the closet. Just like that, he gets a new wardrobe, a new boyfriend and an entirely new outlook on life.
Following his father’s death, a bereaved Oliver becomes somewhat of a shut-in. As Beginners takes us through his personal journey, the film flashes forward, intercutting a budding relationship between Oliver and a young French actress (Inglourious Basterd’s Mélanie Laurent) whom he meets at a costume party that he attends under duress. The twin narratives gradually reveal subtle associations about how Oliver reacts to both these unpredictable relationships, and how his father and girlfriend motivate him to surpass his self-prescribed limitations.
We’ve always enjoyed Mills’ music videos (Air, Cibo Matto, Blonde Redhead), his short films, and his sincere and guileless debut film, “Thumbsucker,” which introduced audiences to actor Lou Taylor Pucci (plus showcased a rare and strong dramatic turn from both Keanu Reeves and Vincent Vaughn, both of which were small, but effective parts). The film will premiere sometime this fall at the Toronto International Film Festival, which runs September 9-19. Mills had some interesting music running through “Thumbsucker,” including some Elliott Smith cuts and a buoyant Polyphonic Spree score, so we’re hoping for something of note musically once again.
