Beginners (2011)

All Critics (147) | Top Critics (38) | Fresh (123) | Rotten (23) | DVD (4)

The film is not about a straight man's struggle to understand how his father is gay; it's about learning that happiness is always possible if you're brave enough to keep your heart open.

July 1, 2011 Full Review

Connie Ogle

Miami Herald

Top Critic

"Beginners" is warm and revealing and bittersweet, if a trifle all over the place stylistically and thematically.

June 29, 2011 Full Review

Roger Moore

Orlando Sentinel

Top Critic

"Beginners" is a delightful film - gentle, playful, creative and ultimately happy - though it's a tricky journey.

June 23, 2011 Full Review

Bill Goodykoontz

Arizona Republic

Top Critic

Excruciatingly faux-naïve and sentimental...

June 20, 2011 Full Review | Comments (8)

Richard Brody

New Yorker

Top Critic

Wwhile there's plenty of melancholia, there is also sweet wonder and celebration in writer-director Mike Mills' semiautobiographical tale of a straight son coming to terms with his own love's possibilities after his father comes out of the closet.

June 17, 2011 Full Review

Lisa Kennedy

Denver Post

Top Critic

In his follow-up to Thumbsucker, writer-director Mike Mills continues to evoke a state of perpetual adolescence: the only fears given real weight are of not being liked and of having to behave like a responsible adult.

June 17, 2011 Full Review | Comments (4)

Ben Sachs

Chicago Reader

Top Critic

Plummer, who won an Oscar for this, is that rare actor lucky enough to manage half a century of undiminished dash and elan on screen.

January 1, 2013 Full Review

Roger Moore

McClatchy-Tribune News Service

While some of the cute touches work, the movie's kookyness is ultimately cold and distancing, ensuring that the characters never feel real enough for us to care about them.

November 3, 2012 Full Review

Stephen Carty

Flix Capacitor

Life begins at death. A funny, engaging romantic dramedy about never being too late to find happiness.

September 15, 2012 Full Review

Wesley Lovell

Cinema Sight

Una historia profundamente humana en la que el director no teme escarbar en sus propios fantasmas. Christopher Plummer se adueña de su personaje de una manera tierna y conmovedora, que le valió el Oscar como mejor actor de reparto.

March 26, 2012 Full Review

Enrique Buchichio

Uruguay Total

Good performances by McGregor, Plummer and Laurent. A lot of odd characters in this film. The idea of a cute little dog communicating with people by telepathy worked pretty well.

February 2, 2012 Full Review

Robert Roten

Laramie Movie Scope

McGregor and Plummer put on a master's exhibition of timing, tone and tenacity.

December 28, 2011 Full Review

S. James Wegg

JWR

In any other movie, the key character of Arthur, a soulful Jack Russell terrier, would draw all the attention away from the two-legged protagonists, but the performances by the three leads are so superb that everyone is able to share in the glory.

December 21, 2011 Full Review

Matt Brunson

Creative Loafing

Like his irreverent film Thumbsucker, Mills tackles dark territory but never strays too far into melancholy.

December 7, 2011 Full Review

Rebecca Barry

Flicks.co.nz

Mills frames the tale with enough melancholy and self-reflection to give Beginners more than its fair share of observational truths.

November 28, 2011 Full Review

Eric Melin

Scene-Stealers.com

[Director Mike] Mills... gives the film a celebratory passion in the quiet closeness of father and son and the playful first-person storytelling...

November 16, 2011 Full Review

Sean Axmaker

MSN.com

A quietly moving, delicately mounted romantic drama that touches the heart with resorting to melodrama or an over-reliance on conflict.

October 18, 2011 Full Review

Jim Schembri

The Age (Australia)

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September 29, 2011 Full Review

Joseph Proimakis

Movies for the Masses

McGregor and Plummer offer up two perfectly weighted, occasionally humorous and often heartbreaking performances.

August 26, 2011 Full Review

Tom Clift

Moviedex

Beginners is perceptive, funny and moving.

August 25, 2011 Full Review

Tom Ryan

The Age (Australia)

Veers between being at times rather tedious and at others very moving.

August 25, 2011 Full Review

Margaret Pomeranz

At the Movies (Australia)

A beautifully understated piece of filmmaking and a playfully inventive style of storytelling are combined to great effect in Beginners.

August 25, 2011 Full Review

Leigh Paatsch

Herald Sun (Australia)

• 1. Hal: I said look I love you and we're great buddies but you know what I am. And then she says, that doesn't matter. I'll fix that.
  – Submitted by Victor M (21 days ago)
• 1. Young Oliver: This music's old.
  2. Georgia: It's black, black music is the deepest cause they suffeIn my next life I'm gonna marry a good hot blooded Jew - someone full of emotion. red the most, them and the Jews.
  3. Oliver: I'm Jewish right?
  4. Georgia: You're a quarter, I'm a half, your father's none. He has the least emotions, You'll have more emotions than him, but I'll have the most emotions.
  – Submitted by Victor M (21 days ago)
• 1. Elliot: What was that?
  2. Oliver: Historical consciousness. You know, something bigger than myself.
  – Submitted by Victor M (21 days ago)
• 1. Elliot: I know! You're not very supportive.
  2. Oliver: Well, its just copying something someone did like 30 years ago in the Bronx.
  3. Elliot: Well yeah. I'm part of a tradition of civil disobedience, something bigger than myself.
  – Submitted by Victor M (21 days ago)
• 1. Young Oliver: It's like I lost the instructions or I, I never had them.
  – Submitted by Victor M (21 days ago)
• 1. Oliver: Jesus, Liz. Another band that wants portraits.
  2. Liz: Well, at least it pays the rent.
  3. Oliver: You do something decent once, and that's all people ever want.
  – Submitted by Victor M (21 days ago)

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