Beginners

When it comes to relationships, we’re all beginners.

From writer/director Mike Mills comes Beginners, a comedy/drama about how deeply funny and transformative life can be, even at its most serious moments.

Beginners imaginatively explores the hilarity, confusion, and surprises of love through the evolving consciousness of Oliver (Golden Globe Award nominee Ewan McGregor). Oliver meets the irreverent and unpredictable Anna (Mélanie Laurent of Inglourious Basterds) only months after his father Hal Fields (Academy Award nominee Christopher Plummer) has passed away.

This new love floods Oliver with memories of his father, who, following the death of his wife of 45 years, came out of the closet at age 75 to live a full, energized, and wonderfully tumultuous gay life – which included a younger boyfriend, Andy (Goran Visnjic of ER). The upheavals of Hal’s new honesty, by turns funny and moving, brought father and son closer than they’d ever been able to be. Now Oliver endeavors to love Anna with all the bravery, humor, and hope that his father taught him.

At once deeply personal and universal, Beginners was inspired by Mike Mills’ own father and is meant in turn to inspire everyone weighing their chances and choices in life and love.

Beginners

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About the Film

When it comes to relationships, we’re all beginners.

From writer/director Mike Mills comes Beginners, a comedy/drama about how deeply funny and transformative life can be, even at its most serious moments.

Beginners imaginatively explores the hilarity, confusion, and surprises of love through the evolving consciousness of Oliver (Golden Globe Award nominee Ewan McGregor). Oliver meets the irreverent and unpredictable Anna (Mélanie Laurent of Inglourious Basterds) only months after his father Hal Fields (Academy Award nominee Christopher Plummer) has passed away.

This new love floods Oliver with memories of his father, who, following the death of his wife of 45 years, came out of the closet at age 75 to live a full, energized, and wonderfully tumultuous gay life – which included a younger boyfriend, Andy (Goran Visnjic of ER). The upheavals of Hal’s new honesty, by turns funny and moving, brought father and son closer than they’d ever been able to be. Now Oliver endeavors to love Anna with all the bravery, humor, and hope that his father taught him.

At once deeply personal and universal, Beginners was inspired by Mike Mills’ own father and is meant in turn to inspire everyone weighing their chances and choices in life and love.

  • Ewan McGregor
    Oliver
  • Christopher Plummer
    Hal
  • M'elanie Laurent
    Anna
  • Goran Visnjic
    Andy
  • Cosmo
    Arthur
  • Mathilde de Cagny
    Head Animal Trainer
  • Mike Mills
    Writer/Director
  • Leslie Urdang and Dean Vanech
    Producers
  • Miranda de Pencier
    Producer
  • Jay Van Hoy and Lars Knudsen
    Producers
  • Fran Giblin
    Co-Producer
  • Geoff Linville
    Co-Producer
  • Kasper Tuxen
    Director of Photography
  • Shane Valentino
    Production Designer
  • Olivier Bugge Coutt'e
    Film Editor
  • Jennifer Johnson
    Costume Designer
  • Roger Neill, David Palmer, Brian Reitzell
    Music