Beginners
Focus Features | Release Date: June 3, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
81
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 36 Critic Reviews
Positive:
34
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonJun 24, 2011
A lovably quirky comedy-drama with a rhythm all its own. Read full review
100
Washington PostAnn HornadayJun 9, 2011
You know you're in the hands of a superbly gifted filmmaker when he can pull off a talking dog. Read full review
100
USA TodayClaudia PuigJun 2, 2011
What results is a disarmingly honest tale of affection, both romantic and filial. Read full review
100
Boxoffice MagazineSteve RamosJun 2, 2011
Sweet moments of subtle comedy and straightforward family drama mix perfectly with Mike Mills' trademark artfulness in Beginners. Read full review
100
Slant MagazineDiego SemereneMay 31, 2011
One of the most distinct pleasures of Beginners is the way it puts together fragments of someone's life-presumably the filmmaker's, although little does it matter-with humility, and without vying for some complete whole. Read full review
100
VarietyPeter DebrugeMay 29, 2011
Rarely do you find such self-plunging material beyond the realm of documentary or far-fringe museum fare, and despite his background in that arena, Mills sheds all preciosity in service of genuinely revealing introspection. Read full review
91
Portland OregonianShawn LevyJun 9, 2011
The result is as much a revelation of the artist's craft as it is of the man's heart and mind. Read full review
91
IndieWireEric KohnJun 2, 2011
Mills fashions the set-up for an overwrought, thoroughly depressing character study into an oddly charming comedy. It's a midlife crisis gently portrayed with sympathy rather than grief. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumMay 29, 2011
The movie darts, dreams, and sometimes seems to dance. The great Plummer, meanwhile, creates an inspiring, fully rounded man in late bloom, and McGregor responds with a performance to match. Read full review
90
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJun 23, 2011
A delightful film - gentle, playful, creative and ultimately happy - though it's a tricky journey. Read full review
90
SalonAndrew O'HehirJun 2, 2011
A sad, sweet, funny and ultimately unforgettable love story about a man and a woman and a father and son, and also ranks among the most affectionate and sensitive portraits of homosexuality ever crafted by a straight person. Read full review
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinMay 30, 2011
Mike Mills's marvelously inventive romantic comedy Beginners is pickled in sadness, loss, and the belief that humans (especially when they mate) are stunted by their parents' buried secrets, their own genetic makeup, and our sometimes-sociopathic social norms. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttMay 29, 2011
All the movie's playfulness rubs off on the actors. Scenes crackle with life. The chemistry among all the actors is terrific. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesJun 23, 2011
Grief doesn't exactly sound like a promising starting point for a love story, but, really, what a bounty Mills presents to us of beauty and buoyancy and possibility. Read full review
88
Miami HeraldConnie OgleJun 30, 2011
McGregor hasn't been this appealing or vulnerable in ages, and in both of the film's love stories, he exemplifies Mills' message. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertJun 9, 2011
One of the pleasures of Beginners is the warmth and sincerity of the major characters. There is no villain. They begin by wanting to be happier and end by succeeding. Read full review
85
MovielineStephanie ZacharekJun 2, 2011
Beginners is all about beginnings that begin with endings - the point, Mills seems to be saying, is that sometimes you need to say good-bye to make room for hello. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubScott TobiasJun 2, 2011
Doing some of his best work in years, Ewan McGregor plays Mills' alter ego as a prickly, not altogether noble loner in his late 30s who initially doesn't take the news of his father's coming-out well. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierJun 3, 2011
Beginners is filled with crises of identity, but underneath it all is a beautifully humane, sweet and intelligent movie that knows exactly what it is at every moment. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyJun 2, 2011
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 full review
80
The New York TimesManohla DargisJun 2, 2011
In wistful tone and mood, Beginners at times hazily evokes the films of Wong Kar-wai, including "Chungking Express," a different kind of memory piece. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternJun 2, 2011
The film's special mixture of sadness, comedy and hope sneaks up on you and stays in your memory. Read full review
80
Time OutKeith UhlichMay 31, 2011
A movie with an unflinchingly tough heart. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie RickeyJun 16, 2011
What's refreshing about Beginners is its sympathy for all of its characters, which translates into the characters' sympathy for each other. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJun 15, 2011
The result is 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 full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJun 9, 2011
As for Plummer, I don't know how he does it, but he somehow radiates gayness. It's nothing overt, just some internal shift, but if you saw only 10 seconds of Plummer in this film, you would know he was playing a gay man. You just might not know how you know it. Read full review
75
New York PostLou LumenickJun 3, 2011
This superbly acted and ultimately disarming dual coming-out comedy-drama -- which turns out to be semi-autobiographical -- certainly grows on you, despite all of the twee touches. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversJun 2, 2011
McGregor goes bone-deep in a performance of shining subtlety. And a never-better Plummer is simply stupendous, refusing any call to sentiment as he shows us Hal's resonant lunge at life. Mills works the same way. Beginners is one from the bruised heart. Read full review
75
ObserverRex ReedJun 1, 2011
The best thing about Beginners is the way it accepts every character in a nonjudgmental way. Read full review
70
Village VoiceRob NelsonMay 31, 2011
So Beginners might sound insufferable, but it isn't - or at least not completely. Mills's second feature (after Thumbsucker) has way too many quirks for its own good, although it also flaunts a rare freedom to jump back and forth in time. Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerJun 5, 2011
All of this has its value, but Plummer, in rollicking good form, without a shred of sentimentality, is primed for greatness, and Mills keeps cutting away from him just when things are getting interesting. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenJun 16, 2011
Ultimately, the result is identical to Mills's debut effort in "Thumbsucker." Once again, clever insight vies with misty-eyed sentimentality, honesty with artifice, real humour with bogus gravity, the genuinely affecting with the merely quirky. But "Thumbsucker" was at least a promising start; Beginners is just a frustrating continuation. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeWesley MorrisJun 9, 2011
The movie is foggy with reverence and uncertainty. This is the passive work of a man nervous to touch the third rail of his parents' discontent. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJun 9, 2011
Just cute enough for some tastes, too cute by half for others. Read full review
60
EmpireAnna SmithJul 18, 2011
With good performances and characters, Beginners is an enjoyable, amusing and occasionally poignant watch. Indie film fans will want to catch it, but it falls short of being a must-see. Read full review
60
Chicago ReaderBen SachsJun 9, 2011
Mills pulls off the nonchronological structure with uncommon sensitivity; unfortunately, he also confuses sensitivity with preciousness (recurring scenes show the hero confiding in a Jack Russell terrier). Read full review
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