cineSARNIA presents BEGINNERS November 6 & 7 Cast: Christopher Plummer, Ewan McGregor, Melanie Laurent Run Time: 104 minutes Country: USA Year: 2010 Language: English Distributor: Alliance Films Distributor Estimates Availability As: Current Video: N/A Ratings: ON 14A / BC PG / AB 14A / SK PG / MB PG / PQ G / Maritimes NR BEGINNERS An audience favourite at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival®, Beginners is a moving and oftentimes hilarious portrait of family, love, loss, and self-discovery. After the critical success of his first feature, Thumbsucker, director Mike Mills returns at the top of his game crafting a dynamic and emotional mood piece 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, Ghost Writer), a talented illustrator: One timeline follows the slow- burning deterioration of Oliver’s father (Christopher Plummer, The Last Station, and the upcoming English language remake of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) 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. The other timeline takes place following his father’s death, when a bereaved Oliver becomes somewhat of a shut-in while trying to maintain a relationship with a young actress (Mélanie Laurent, Inglourious Basterds, The Concert). 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. McGregor and Laurent have natural onscreen chemistry, and Plummer is outstanding in his rich portrayal of a dying man who is finally able to live honestly, breaking out of his shell so near the end of his life. The ensemble cast lends the film a warm, understated aura that never feels the least bit contrived. Mills is at the top of his game in crafting dynamic mood pieces that steer clear of the usual trappings found in American independent cinema. The outcome is a thoroughly enjoyable character study about people opening up and discovering themselves despite age, preconceptions and illness “A buoyant and disarming drama about sons and fathers, death and dying, living and loving and all the ways we find ourselves starting over, hoping to finally get it right.” – Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times .