Beginners

Q: What’s the movie about?

A: A man (Ewan McGregor), with a gay dad who dies (Christopher Plummer), falls in love with a French woman (Melanie Laurent).

Q: Who’s in the movie?

A: Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer, Melanie Laurent, Goran Visnjic, Kai Lennox, Mary Page Keller, Keegan Boos, China Shavers

Q: Is this movie worth the price of admission?

A: Stop! This film did not make me think, it did not make me laugh, it did not make me cry, no not in the bath. It did not inspire me, it did not teach me a thing, it did not entertain me, it did not make me sing. But I think the most annoying thing, is that it's not quite so bad, to stop others from liking. (Yeah, I watched Green Eggs and Ham recently. So what?!)

Q: Will this movie make me laugh?

A: It did do one thing. It made me sleep-- bada-bing!

Q: Will this movie make me cry?

A: ...But at least I wasn't snoring, like the man next to me, so boring... Okay, enough with the "rhyming", which I quote to mock my timing. And get ready for it, we're going back to my usual style of wit.

Q: Will this movie be up for any awards?

A: The Animal Acting category is really filling up this year. I've got another great contender in the Jack Russell Terrier named Arthur, who is played by Cosmo... My audience gave him the biggest applause of all the actors during the closing credits.

Q: How is the Acting?

A: What a waste of good actors. Whatever. They were fine.

Q: How is the Directing?

A: Throughout the film, Mike Mills cuts to colors and still images during Ewan McGregor's quirky narrations. At first it's cute, but as it continues, you get the distinct impression that Mills is only keeping up the gimmick because he feels artistic pressure to maintain a consistent look throughout the film. You can even feel him starting to regret having introduced this style in the first place.

Q: How is the story/script?

A: Quirky and dull. Two adjectives I've never had to use together before.

Q: Is there anything else worth mentioning about the movie?

A: The best of the quirky parts are in the trailer below, so enjoy those for free.

Q: Where can I see the trailer?

A: Beginners Trailer

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Adam

Q: What’s the movie about?

A: A romance develops between a man with Asperger's Syndrome (Hugh Dancy) and his beautiful neighbor (Rose Byrne).

Q: Who’s in the movie?

A: Hugh Dancy, Rose Byrne, Peter Gallagher, Amy Irving, Frankie Faison

Q: Is this movie worth the price of admission?

A: Proceed with Caution. While the movie clearly tries to shed light on what it is to live with Asperger's Syndrome, it's unclear if the filmmaker is trying to create sympathy for the bearers of this mental condition, or if this is a cautionary tale warning the rest of us to stay away from them.

Q: Will this movie make me laugh?

A: If you see any blurbs describing this film as a "romantic-comedy" (as I did), I would advise you never to read the trash-rags on which that was printed again, as a film is required to have jokes, in order to qualify for that label.

Q: Will this movie make me cry?

A: It makes me sad to think that if this film's depiction of Asperger's is correct, no one should ever date a person who has it... On the bright side, since one of the key elements of Asperger's is that you can't tell how other people are feeling, at least you would never have to know that you are not loved.

Q: Will this movie be up for any awards?

A: Not to go back to the whole "Half-retard" thing (see Tropic Thunder), but clearly Hugh Dancy took this role in the hopes that he would get recognized by award-givers everywhere. Unfortunately, his forced performance is one of the things that worked against the movie's success.

Q: How is the Acting?

A: Not only is Hugh Dancy's performance uneven, and way too autistic to represent the true functionality of a person with Asperger's, but he's also not nearly as attractive when he doesn't use his English accent. Rose Byrne proves to be a TV actress, at best... Although, I've never seen her on TV, and guest reviewer Russ says she's no good at that either.

Q: How is the Directing?

A: Since the director is also the writer, I have to blame him for the bad performances, as he had to have known the right way to deliver the lines, and wasn't able to get the actors to do it. If Hugh Dancy, for example, had simply trusted the words in the script, and said them like a normal person, instead of adding so many actorish mannerisms to them, the words alone could've gotten his social awkwardness across in a much more believable way. It's called trusting the script.

Q: How is the story/script?

A: For once, the script was better than the movie. Not by much, mind you, but with stronger actors, it could have been ever so slightly more compelling. And perhaps I would've understood what the author was trying to tell his audience about people who have Asperger's. Because I find it hard to believe that he went to the trouble of writing a film, raising money for it, going through an arduous production and post-production process, doing the festival circuit, and finding a distributor, just so that I could take away the message, "Don't bother with these people, they're not worth the effort."

Q: Where can I see the trailer?

A: http://www.moviefone.com/search/adam/trailers

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