Beginners (Principiantes)

Everybody lives, everybody suffers, everybody dies. A classic tough-minded indie with a classic tough-minded protagonist. He should carry a ball. (02.12.2011)

At first glance, Beginners has a very attractive subject and an extremely likeable cast, which makes it all the more disappointing how flat and futile it is in the execution, bland and sticking to the surface. The film has several storylines and issues: interpersonal and intergenerational relationships, the question of death, sexual minorities, the search for one's own identity, but none of them were strong enough to engage me and move my perception. So I have to say that I was seriously disappointed, and not even the endearing Jack Russell and Christopher Plummer's Oscar-winning performance could help. (17.03.2019)

Mélanie Laurent gave a very decent performance especially considering the fact that there was practically no plot. I had the impression that I wasn't watching a film, but a sad lyrical poem. My problem is, although I like literature, I’m not that into poems, especially lyrical ones, hence the two stars. (30.12.2017)

I have to say that when I watched the movie, I thought that a much more fitting title would be "Beginnings", or in Czech, "Začátky". I didn't know that the film was actually called that in Czech. I'm more familiar with how movies are titled in English, not Czech. I then came to the conclusion that the distribution company actually did think about the Czech title this time. A pleasant exception. Speaking of what's pleasing, besides the Czech title, it's the performances by the actors. It's a concert of three people - Ewan McGregor, Mélanie Laurent, and of course Christopher Plummer. I said that the soon to be eighty-three-year-old gentleman deserved the Golden statue for what he showed. He surprised me incredibly. He played a father who, at his blessed age, revealed to his son that he is gay, and had been his whole life, which he spent hiding the fact from his son's mother, his wife. The son is not shaken by it as much, but it's still a strong surprise. But the father goes further, he no longer wants to hide, he wants to be gay in practice. His wife has passed away, and he can now be truthful. He finds a forty-year-old lover, kisses him, holds his hand, loves him. It's evident on him. Plummer played a gay man incredibly convincingly at his age, I wish him the award, he deserves it. To get back to the movie. It's about beginnings. At the age of eighty, the father discovers what it's like to finally love someone differently than how society expresses it. His son, on the other hand, discovers what it's really like to love, his past relationships never lasted, as if he was afraid. His new partner is in the same situation. The film is filled with interesting passages, which are a series of photographs that are supposed to describe the period commented on by the main character. An interesting and original solution that complements the hero's introversion, who is focused on individual moments - he is a comic book artist. A pleasant film, definitely. More: http://www.filmovy-denik.cz/2012/09/rebelka-perfect-sense-sprosty-holky.html (27.02.2013)