A tender, lightly comic grief story that turns into a moving meditation on late-life reinvention, family, and the messy ways people learn to love each other. It’s especially rewarding if you like intimate character studies with a gentle, offbeat tone and emotional honesty.
Beginners
Where to watch: Buy
Movie · Drama · Romance
Fri · 1h 44m
Director: Mike Mills
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer, Mélanie Laurent
Overview
Oliver meets the irreverent and unpredictable Anna only months after his father Hal Fields has passed away. This new love floods Oliver with memories of his father, who, following the death of his wife of 44 years, came out of the closet at age 75 to live a full, energized, and wonderfully tumultuous gay life – which included a younger boyfriend.
Director
Mike Mills
Cast
Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer, Mélanie Laurent
Curator Review
Verdict
A tender, lightly comic grief story that turns into a moving meditation on late-life reinvention, family, and the messy ways people learn to love each other. It’s especially rewarding if you like intimate character studies with a gentle, offbeat tone and emotional honesty.
Best for
viewers who like bittersweet indie dramas
fans of quiet, character-driven romance
people drawn to stories about grief, aging, and second chances
audiences who appreciate wry humor mixed with sincerity
Skip if
you want a plot-heavy movie with strong twists
you dislike elliptical, conversational storytelling
you prefer romance that stays conventional and tidy
you’re not in the mood for melancholy or emotional vulnerability
Overview
Beginners is one of those rare films that makes emotional honesty feel playful rather than heavy. Mike Mills builds the story out of fragments, memories, and small gestures, letting the characters drift through grief, attraction, and self-reinvention without forcing neat conclusions. The result is intimate and deeply humane, with a tone that feels both breezy and devastating.
Worth noting
Christopher Plummer gives the film its heartbeat as a father who finally gets to live on his own terms, while Ewan McGregor grounds the story in quiet uncertainty and longing. Mélanie Laurent brings a spark of unpredictability that keeps the movie from settling into pure melancholy. The humor is dry, the sadness is real, and the balance between the two is what makes it linger.
Bottom line
What stands out most is the film’s faith in ordinary moments: conversations in bed, awkward pauses, small acts of care, and the way memory keeps rewriting the present. It’s a love story, but also a story about permission — to grieve, to change, and to begin again even when you feel far from new.
Top Letterboxd reviews
issy 🥝 (5★) · 3019 likes
this film feels like one long conversation between two people lay on the floor staring at the ceiling when they should be asleep but they can't sleep so they tell each other whatever they think of, relevant to anything or not, and they laugh and maybe cry and there's both comfortable and awkward pauses but always a mutual understanding that none of it really means anything but the fact that it means nothing means something. mike mills you are the
vi (5★) · 2338 likes
i relate to the dog because i would also start crying if ewan mcgregor left me
#1 gizmo fan (5★) · 1423 likes
honestly one of the most truthful and beautiful stories about love ever put to screen. makes me cry every single time.
mulaney (5★) · 1257 likes
"you can stay in the same place and still find ways to leave people." i am at a loss for words. this was beautiful.
matt lynch (4★) · 1181 likes
"Here. Here is simple and happy. That's what I meant to give you."
Themes
grief and mourning, late-life coming out, family reconciliation, romantic connection, self-reinvention, memory and flashback, loneliness, emotional intimacy