Beginners
Directed by: Mike Mills
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer, Melaine Laurent
Rated: R for language and some sexual content
Designer Mike Mills' latest feature film Beginners is visionary in it's scope and tone, which alone may make it worth watching, but is actually more like a crash-course in melancholy existential philosophy than a movie. Based loosely on Mill's on life, the film follows Oliver (Ewan McGregor), a sad and lonely man whom seemingly feels like life and experiences have restricted him; his art is too bold for the public's liking, his relationships have failed, and his father (a brilliant Christopher Plummer) has recently died of cancer. This depression grabs the attention of a beautiful French actress, whom seems drawn to the honesty of Oliver. While they form a romantic relationship, it turns into yet another restriction of his life, and causes him to look back at how his mother dealt with the restrictions of her Judaism and how his father dealt with his own homosexuality. The answer Mills comes to is the hope of finding those things that bring you happiness and joy and embracing them as long as you can, whether it's a free-spirit French actress, finding an affectionate gay lover, or simply acting ridiculous in art galleries and driving on sidewalks. As honest as this is, there is a degree of sadness that one can search his entire life and experience so little, if any, of this happiness. What the film, as well as director Mike Mills, fail to see is that true freedom in life is not trying to find something that brings us happiness but embracing a relationship with the only One who satisfies the human soul.
Directed by: Mike Mills
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer, Melaine Laurent
Rated: R for language and some sexual content
Designer Mike Mills' latest feature film Beginners is visionary in it's scope and tone, which alone may make it worth watching, but is actually more like a crash-course in melancholy existential philosophy than a movie. Based loosely on Mill's on life, the film follows Oliver (Ewan McGregor), a sad and lonely man whom seemingly feels like life and experiences have restricted him; his art is too bold for the public's liking, his relationships have failed, and his father (a brilliant Christopher Plummer) has recently died of cancer. This depression grabs the attention of a beautiful French actress, whom seems drawn to the honesty of Oliver. While they form a romantic relationship, it turns into yet another restriction of his life, and causes him to look back at how his mother dealt with the restrictions of her Judaism and how his father dealt with his own homosexuality. The answer Mills comes to is the hope of finding those things that bring you happiness and joy and embracing them as long as you can, whether it's a free-spirit French actress, finding an affectionate gay lover, or simply acting ridiculous in art galleries and driving on sidewalks. As honest as this is, there is a degree of sadness that one can search his entire life and experience so little, if any, of this happiness. What the film, as well as director Mike Mills, fail to see is that true freedom in life is not trying to find something that brings us happiness but embracing a relationship with the only One who satisfies the human soul.
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