Beginners. Dir. Mike Mills. 2010.

The simple story of an aging father (played by Christopher Plummer) who finally comes out as gay after his wife dies. The emphasis is on the fears his son has developed growing up in a family where he could tell his parents were not happy. The son (played by Ewan McGregor) struggles to feel and trust in the happiness that loving another person brings. His girlfriend (played by Melanie Laurent) has similar deep-seated doubts. As the father slowly dies of cancer, leaving behind a dog with separation anxiety, the son learns to make a commitment to another. The father’s gay lover (played by Goran Visnjic) furthers the son’s progress by his emotionally open and honest manner. The element that adds profundity to the film is the son’s voiceover as a series of ad-based images from the 1960s flash on the screen. These are images of smiling children, nuclear families, everyday consumer objects like cars, public restrooms where closeted gays had trysts, combined with the son-narrator’s declarative statements pointing to what happiness was supposed to be and what was at stake for men who did not live up to the consumerist, hetero, breadwinner role for men.