In Beginners, out today, director Mike Mills tells his own story with subtle realism; Snow Flower is less well-told.
Beginners
Premise: man falls in love but his feelings get mixed up with memories of his father’s coming out. Probably not something you could have made up, and it wasn’t. Beginners is Mike Mills’s interpretation of his real-life experience, which explains something of its charm. Instead of pat connections being drawn between father and son stories, and emotional high points bolstered by crafted set-ups and pay-offs, this is subtler, messier and more elusive. Like life.
The telling is nicely controlled. The movement across stories – including a third one touching on the son’s childhood – flows effortlessly. Mills doesn’t red-flag flashbacks; he lets them cruise in, the way real memories do. But amid the realism, he can’t resist planting some stylistic, cinematic devices.
A subtitled dog, for instance. It may be of interest that Mills’s wife is Miranda July, she of the quirky comedies about awkwardness, whose latest film, The Future, was narrated by a mocked-up cat. Mills’s dog is a real jack russell, and cuter and funnier. Anyone who owns a pet knows it’s not far-fetched to be found projecting your thoughts onto it. See also, The Beaver.
Anyway. Arthur, the dog, has been inherited by Oliver (Ewan McGregor) from his father, Hal (Christopher Plummer). Hal died of cancer, but only after spending the years following his wife’s death embracing the life of a gay man. It’s the memories of this period, and of his parents’ marriage, that interfere with Oliver’s attempts at a relationship. The insights aren’t delivered on a plate, but he does get that at some point before you die you have to commit. And, actually, it’s Arthur who delivers that gem.
The acting is fine and appropriately low-key: Plummer avoids the extremes of camp or angst, and McGregor trades his cheesy grin for his solemn face. As Anna, the love interest, Mélanie Laurent convincingly negotiates her character’s own unique fears around commitment. And although not your standard romantic comedy, there is a lightness of tone, supported by jazz’n’blues-inflected music, that counteracts the ambient sadness. The final lines of dialogue are brilliant. They not only sum up the film’s intent – the funny-sad uncertainty of how to be in a relationship – but also its title.
BEGINNERS, directed by Mike Mills. Movies and times here.
Another surprising Arthur turns up in Wayne Wang’s Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. He’s an Australian crooner-cum-nightclub entrepreneur, played by Hugh Jackman – yes, Wolverine sings! In Mandarin! His pipes are good, so it’s not a Pierce Brosnan moment, but it’s still a jolting one. One of several in this adaptation of Lisa See’s novel.
The 19th-century story of Snow Flower and Lily, seven-year-olds bound together for eternity through the custom of “laotong” (“old sames”), holds the promise of a visual and emotional exploration of an ancient cultural practice; one that could resonate with notions of sisterhood today. It’s indeed occasionally lovely to look at: intimately shot, colourful and lyrical. Where it falters is in its grafting on of a modern-day story whose beats are designed to achieve that resonance. Wang and one of the writers, Ron Bass, have done this before, in The Joy Luck Club, but their handling of time changes here lacks the smoothness of a Mike Mills.
The girls’ 21st-century counterparts are Sophia and Nina, played competently but somewhat soullessly by the same actresses (Gianna Jun and Li Bing Bing). They live in Shanghai’s go-getting world of clubs, corporate careers and a city in transition. When Sophia lands in hospital, Nina is forced to examine their relationship and the past.
It takes a while to settle into the four characters, not to mention their younger selves, and the episodic structure and criss-crossing of the two stories makes for a disjointed effect – hence those jolting moments. Moreover, the parallel story beats start to feel schematic and superficial. If the effort gone into manipulating two stories had been put into a deeper examination of female bonding in the ancient story, the whole film might have felt more emotionally satisfying, and been a decent weepy that still spoke to its contemporary audience.
SNOW FLOWER AND THE SECRET FAN, directed by Wayne Wang. Cinemas and times here.
Click here for more reviews by Helene Wong; here for reviews and interviews by David Larsen.