Beginners
Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer, Melanie Laurent
Director: Mike Mills
One of the most surreal and hilarious moments in Mike Mills' second film sees his protagonist, Oliver (Ewan McGregor), having a meeting with an indie rock band who have employed him to design the cover of their latest album. The musicians look on aghast as the designer unreels a complex foldout stretching to the length of half a room.
Rather than introducing the musicians - who are called The Sads - his concept is a series of single-frame drawings documenting the history of sadness. 'Just take their pictures,' his supervisor says in dismay, after the band leave the room.
Beginners is based largely on Mills' own life - he was a graphic designer before he began making music videos and films. And the story here about Oliver's father telling him he's gay after his wife's death matches Mills' father's real-life coming-out.
With that in mind, the episode with the band could be seen as Mills' revenge for once having a great idea spurned by a mundane client. But it also probably speaks about the theme bubbling beneath the film's narrative: the difficulties of human connection (Oliver and the band unable to reconcile creative concepts, for instance).
It's a story about how individuals come to terms with (or suppress) their inner self (Oliver's father Hal's belated acknowledgment of his homosexuality; his mother Georgia's efforts to obscure her Jewish roots) and also their inability to bring their feelings into the open.