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Taking a deeper look at current and past films and how they relate to the world today.

Jonathan Kim is an independent film critic who writes and produces film reviews for Uprising and other outlets. He is a former co-producer at Brave New Films.

Read his reviews online at ReThinkReviews.net. Watch his videos at www.youtube.com/user/jsjkim, and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ReThinkReviews. ReThink Reviews’ theme song is by Restavrant.

Beginners

For most of us, our parents’ marriage is the template for future relationships that we spend much of our lives affirming, opposing, or recovering from. But there’s usually much more going on inside a relationship than meets the outsider’s eye, which is the case in writer/director Mike Mills’ largely autobiographical film “Beginners”, where Oliver, played by Ewan McGregor, learns a few months after his mother’s death that his 75-year-old father, Hal, played by Christopher Plummer, is gay and always has been.

Not only does this cause Oliver to re-examine his memories of his imaginative yet neglected mother, played by Mary Page Keller, but it allows him to re-meet his previously distant father, who has embraced his identity as a gay man, falling in love with a handsome younger boyfriend, becoming active in gay social and political groups, and displaying an emotional availability that Oliver never thought existed.

But soon after beginning his new life, Hal is diagnosed with terminal cancer. And following Hal’s death, Oliver, who’s still in mourning, meets and slowly falls for a visiting French actress named Anna, played by Mélanie Laurent, forcing Oliver to decide if he’ll once again follow his parents’ pattern of emotional distance or follow his dad’s new, passionate, in-the-moment example. Oh yeah — Oliver also adopts his dad’s dog, Arthur, whose thoughts you can read onscreen.

“Beginners” intercuts Oliver’s childhood memories of his mother with the period before and after Hal’s death, along with facts and archival photos about each time period. While all this might sound like a lot, “Beginners” comes together beautifully, mixing honesty, emotion, intimacy, humor, and the sometimes unreliable power of memory through its interwoven timelines and the pitch-perfect performances of its three main characters — four if you count Cosmo, the adorable Jack Russell terrier who plays Arthur.

Plummer is particularly good in a role that could’ve easily devolved into caricature, capturing the giddy excitement of a man finally allowed to be himself after more than 70 years. As “Beginners” points out, it wasn’t so long ago that homosexuality was considered a mental illness and a criminal offense, where there was no such thing as “gay pride” and being out of the closet simply wasn’t an option.

McGregor’s understated, bemused performance as Oliver is perfect for a man who, at 38, is both meeting his father and understanding his parents for the first time. And Laurent, whose role as Anna veers perilously close to being one of those quirky hot female saviors who rescue lonely sensitive guys in indie movies, adds enough darkness to make her more than a fantasy.

When I was a kid, I was certain that my dad and I would never be close. But as I got older and we could talk more, I learned more about his life growing up in Korea, which not only improved my understanding of who he is, but also the work he does, which has, in turn, taught me a lot about myself. It’s made me so grateful that I had the chance to get to know him, especially since so many people have at least one of their parents cut from their lives, either through divorce, death, or transgressions that seemingly can’t be forgiven. But one of my favorite things about “Beginners” is its message that it’s never too late to start again, whether it’s your relationship with your parents or your past.

“Beginners” is rated R and is in select theaters now.