Metroscope
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Isn’t that Captain Von Trapp? If you’re like me, the name Christopher Plummer calls to mind a picture of the great actor crooning to Julie Andrews in a Viennese gazebo in “The Sound of Music.” Well, if you exchange Fraulein Maria for former ER hearthtrob Goran Visnjic, trade in Leisel for Ewan McGregor and ditch the rest of the Von Trapp children, you’ll begin to get a picture of Beginners. Though there are a number of “beginnings” in the film, it starts with an ending: Plummer has died, leaving his son Oliver (McGregor) to care for his father’s adorable dog and make sense of the fact that Hal (Plummer) spent the last few years of his life finally embracing his gay identity (after a long, unhappy marriage to Oliver’s mother). Over the course of the film, we look back to see Plummer build his new, gay life only to have it abbreviated by his sickness and death. At the same time, we watch McGregor attempt to make sense of life after his father’s death and love after witnessing his father’s late-in-life change of heart.
