"Beginners"-- my mom always told me to try new things, clearly she didn't know about this film
"Beginners"...
ah, where to begin? After 6 minutes of this film I turned it off, there were already too many cliches and I was annoyed. I turned it back on... 16 minutes later I turned it off again, I had been introduced to the leading lady, she was cloying and annoying. I gave it the college try and turned it on once more... this time lasting all the way to 48 minutes. I vowed not to finish the film.... but I did, because I felt I had an obligation to the world and myself as a cantankerous artist to see it through. A bad movie is like a marathon when you didn't train enough: all signs point to quit, but you signed up for the darn thing, and you want that banana at the finish.
Beginners opens on Ewan McGregor... er, I don't even know his characters name, does it matter? He's dumping pills into the toilet, and throwing things away. He is cleaning out a house, clearly not his. Something has transpired. We find out shortly his father has just died, following his mother five years earlier. Through the film we bounce between three times: Ewan with his mother at age 11, Ewan with his father right after his mother died, and Ewan with his girlfriend two months after Hal, his father, has died.
--But there is a twist, his father is gay, he came out of the proverbial closet right after Ewan's mother died. He felt the need to live the 'lie' because that is what happened in 1955 (we find out later in the film) -- apparently that happened right after the delorian took you to twin pines mall... which is a film I would have preferred to watch.
The use of a jack russell terrier as a foil to Ewan was tired and old even as Ewan's voice over told me it was tired and old and even as he told the dog that in one of Los Angeles' many dog parks. The use of the super cute and cool 'out-of-nowhere-girl-at-a-party' girlfriend was even more annoying. Ewan's somber mood actually me wish Jar Jar Binks would appear.
The film screamed some European garbage, yet it was set, without any real reason, in Los Angeles. As I finished the film, I'm pretty sure the reason the film was set in L.A. was for a ten second reference that as Hal was getting married and in the closet, down the street Allen Ginsberg was composing 'Howl'.
The reason my screener was free is that Christopher Plumber is nominated for an award, and he was great. If the film were purely Plumber and McGregor, I may have actually enjoyed it; but Goran Visnjic as the new boyfriend Andy and Ewan's girlfriend played with too much zeal by Melanie Laurent, made me want to end all things in a quick and orderly fashion, unlike Hal's protracted battle with cancer.. Laurent just tried too hard, and she and Ewan's Oliver (I remembered!) had absolutely no chemistry until the last scene of the film (maybe they were thankful it was all over too) and Visnjic's Andy was definitely a character, but not one that fit into the landscape, and certainly not one I cared about in the slightest capacity.
The film did offer one hopeful layer: it had a continual series of screen shots about the past, about how things were as Oliver worked out his sadness as a cartoonist (one moderately bright spot of the whole affair). It gave the film the slightest levity to transcend it's bungling.
Here again, like many praised films which I can't stand, was a piece of artistic expression which walked the line of being something worth something. But as it says in the bible, either be hot or be cold, no one wants things lukewarm; which is what "Beginner's" was... thank God it's over.
ah, where to begin? After 6 minutes of this film I turned it off, there were already too many cliches and I was annoyed. I turned it back on... 16 minutes later I turned it off again, I had been introduced to the leading lady, she was cloying and annoying. I gave it the college try and turned it on once more... this time lasting all the way to 48 minutes. I vowed not to finish the film.... but I did, because I felt I had an obligation to the world and myself as a cantankerous artist to see it through. A bad movie is like a marathon when you didn't train enough: all signs point to quit, but you signed up for the darn thing, and you want that banana at the finish.
Beginners opens on Ewan McGregor... er, I don't even know his characters name, does it matter? He's dumping pills into the toilet, and throwing things away. He is cleaning out a house, clearly not his. Something has transpired. We find out shortly his father has just died, following his mother five years earlier. Through the film we bounce between three times: Ewan with his mother at age 11, Ewan with his father right after his mother died, and Ewan with his girlfriend two months after Hal, his father, has died.
--But there is a twist, his father is gay, he came out of the proverbial closet right after Ewan's mother died. He felt the need to live the 'lie' because that is what happened in 1955 (we find out later in the film) -- apparently that happened right after the delorian took you to twin pines mall... which is a film I would have preferred to watch.
The use of a jack russell terrier as a foil to Ewan was tired and old even as Ewan's voice over told me it was tired and old and even as he told the dog that in one of Los Angeles' many dog parks. The use of the super cute and cool 'out-of-nowhere-girl-at-a-party' girlfriend was even more annoying. Ewan's somber mood actually me wish Jar Jar Binks would appear.
The film screamed some European garbage, yet it was set, without any real reason, in Los Angeles. As I finished the film, I'm pretty sure the reason the film was set in L.A. was for a ten second reference that as Hal was getting married and in the closet, down the street Allen Ginsberg was composing 'Howl'.
The reason my screener was free is that Christopher Plumber is nominated for an award, and he was great. If the film were purely Plumber and McGregor, I may have actually enjoyed it; but Goran Visnjic as the new boyfriend Andy and Ewan's girlfriend played with too much zeal by Melanie Laurent, made me want to end all things in a quick and orderly fashion, unlike Hal's protracted battle with cancer.. Laurent just tried too hard, and she and Ewan's Oliver (I remembered!) had absolutely no chemistry until the last scene of the film (maybe they were thankful it was all over too) and Visnjic's Andy was definitely a character, but not one that fit into the landscape, and certainly not one I cared about in the slightest capacity.
The film did offer one hopeful layer: it had a continual series of screen shots about the past, about how things were as Oliver worked out his sadness as a cartoonist (one moderately bright spot of the whole affair). It gave the film the slightest levity to transcend it's bungling.
Here again, like many praised films which I can't stand, was a piece of artistic expression which walked the line of being something worth something. But as it says in the bible, either be hot or be cold, no one wants things lukewarm; which is what "Beginner's" was... thank God it's over.
Comments
Post a Comment