"Beginners"
starts very slowly and as it goes along it gets slower. The movie,
written and directed by Mike Mills, is supposedly based somewhat on the
true story of him and his father. There are two major stories,   one dealing with the start of a love affair between Oliver (Ewan McGregor) and Anna (Melanie Laurent) which is boring, implausible  and made difficult by the latter who is incomprehensible most of the time. There is zero chemistry between the leads and the affair goes nowhere.

The second story is about Oliver's father, Hal, (Christopher Plummer)
who, after being married to Oliver's mother for 44 years, comes out of
the closet shortly after she dies when he is 75. The wife knew about her
husband before they got married and he did love her but admits to
sublimating that side of him.

Just as Oliver finds Anna, Hal finds Andy (Goran Visnjic), a lot younger than himself. The latter couple has a lot more successful relationship than the former couple mainly because Plummer shows the joy of finding his freedom, of becoming a new man, at 75. It
is a joy just watching the actor celebrating the 4 years of love he
experiences before he dies while McGregor is unable to overcome the bore Oliver is.

We
see some of the realtionship between the son and mother and the son and
father with the son feeling that his parents didn't love each other, or
him, completely. The film opens with Hal dead and shifts back and forth
in time including going back to Oliver as a child. There is also, to
me, a silly bit about a Jack Russell terrier who knows 150 words and
'talks' to Oliver.

The production
values are not the best while the story leaves a lot of holes in the
narrative. At the point where the tears should flow from the audience
nothing happens.

The only reason for seeing this movie is to see Plummer's lovable, joyful performance and to see an actor aging beautifully, retaining a clearness in his eyes that still can mesmerize an audience.

There is still a movie to be made about an older man coming out after being married, raising children and leading a nongay life. There is also a movie to be made about a grown son discovering
his father has always been gay but stayed in the closet for many years.