Beginners 2011

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: "Beginners" is warm and revealing and bittersweet, if a trifle all over the place stylistically and thematically. Read more

Kathleen Murphy, MSN Movies: ... the humans in Beginners never shape up into idiosyncratic, flesh-and-blood folks who get under our skin and engage our deepest emotions. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: He performers are charming, particularly Ms. Laurent and Mr. Plummer, with his killer eyes (still seducing after all these years) and a voice that echoes in your ears. Read more

Keith Uhlich, Time Out: That deceptively delicate surface masks a movie with an unflinchingly tough heart. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Arthur might have stolen this one were it not for a cast that inspires you to empty out your bag of superlatives. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: The film's special mixture of sadness, comedy and hope sneaks up on you and stays in your memory. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Mike Mills' wistful, wonderful "Beginners" feels a lot like life - it'll make you laugh, it'll make you cry (well, me anyway) and, by its end, you'll feel as if you've learned something. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: The material with Plummer is so spectacular -- exuberant, poignant, vastly entertaining -- that it swaddles the rest of the film like a warm blanket. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: "Beginners" is a delightful film - gentle, playful, creative and ultimately happy - though it's a tricky journey. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: This is a bright-looking movie with a long face that seems to have learned nothing about life from death but cliches. Read more

Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader: 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. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Many cherish this film. To me the cuteness feels pushy. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Beginners isn't bad, exactly, but Mills focuses much less on the father-son stuff than on Oliver's off-and-on liaison with a pretty French actress. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: "Write what you know," the standard advice goes, and filmmaker Mike Mills (Thumbsucker ) knew he had a compelling family story to tell. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: 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. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Beginners finds life both ripe with possibility and ensnared in the past. But then every morning is a beginning, right? If only we could remember that. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Plummer ... creates an inspiring, fully rounded man in late bloom, and McGregor responds with a performance to match. Read more

Kirk Honeycutt, Hollywood Reporter: The movie's playfulness rubs off on the actors. Scenes crackle with life. The chemistry among all the actors is terrific. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: A buoyant and disarming drama about sons and fathers, death and dying, living and loving and all the ways we find ourselves starting over, hoping to finally get it right. Read more

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: 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. Read more

Richard Brody, New Yorker: Excruciatingly faux-naive and sentimental... Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: All the gimmicks in the storytelling ... can't camouflage the fact that the story itself was never quite worked out. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: A beautifully humane, sweet and intelligent movie that knows exactly what it is at every moment. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Certainly grows on you, despite all of the twee touches. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: Even the cliches in this warm mood piece seem unpredictable and without contrivance. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: It's a movie about untangling roots in order to grow. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: An effective portrait of a damaged individual uncertain about the meaning of love and commitment and the two key relationships in his life that teach him lessons about both. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: It's a hopeful fable with deep optimism and a cheerful style that kids itself. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Delicate business is being transacted in this touchingly personal and altogether extraordinary film from writer-director Mike Mills. Beginners is one from the bruised heart. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: Ranks among the most affectionate and sensitive portraits of homosexuality ever crafted by a straight person. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Beginners is the story of adults who are beginners at love but who are slowly, scene by scene, moving forward in their journey. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: On paper, it all could have been too cloying or self-conscious, but writer-director Mike Mills finds just the right tone every time. He also draws lovely, natural performances from Christopher Plummer and Ewan McGregor. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Watching the film is like spending two hours consuming fat, sugary doughnuts of self-pity. Read more

Calvin Wilson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: A strange and beautiful film. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: It's an embarrassment of emotional riches -- some pure and crisp, others cloying. This is a film that delights one moment and, the next, gets bogged down in its morass of feelings. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: An affecting film by Mike Mills that makes a virtue of its own awkwardness. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Laurent and McGregor are the year's most appealing screen couple, their scenes together so realistic they seem improvised. Read more

Peter Debruge, Variety: Deeply poignant and disarmingly personal. Read more

Rob Nelson, Village Voice: It's strongest as the story of an artist who, in his own way, has only begun to come out. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: You know you're in the hands of a superbly gifted filmmaker when he can pull off a talking dog. Read more