Beginners.... and an ode to Ewan McGregor

I love Ewan McGregor, don’t you? Well, you should. Ever since Danny Boyle’s black ‘Shallow Grave’ (1994), Ewan has taken on a dizzying range of roles in both cult British films and Hollywood blockbusters.

We have been delighted by the quirkiness of ‘A Life Less Ordinary’ and ‘The Men who stare at Goats’, the starkness of ‘Trainspotting’, the romantic roles in ‘Moulin Rouge’, ‘Little Voice’, ‘Brassed Off’ and ‘Miss Potter’ and the brave move of taking on Alec Guinness’ role in the ‘Star Wars’ prequels. I also loved his more risqué turns in the hilarious ‘I love you Philip Morris’ and ‘Velvet Goldmine’.

He seems unafraid of judgement, which i greatly admire but do wonder what was going through his head when he took the role of the Camerlengo in the film adaptation of the Dan Brown bestseller, Angels and Demons. Despite that dodgy-accented blip, he continues to surprise with the range of roles he is willing to take on; we never know who he will be playing next, which is what you want from an actor really.

So, here we reach the reason for this look back at the Scottish one’s career, the release of a new offering. It is ‘Beginners’, starring the sainted Christopher Plummer as a recently outed older gay man and Ewan as his son Oliver, going back over the last few years they had together.

Within the first few minutes you get the feeling of this film: a hugely touching and human account of a son’s relationship with his mum and dad. His parents (who are both deceased by the time we meet Oliver) had a less than perfect relationship, like most people do, this contributing to the son having less than perfect romantic encounters.

It was easy to connect with all of the main characters, even his late father’s boyfriend. We predictably loved Ewan’s new relationship with his dad’s dog, a very knowledgeable and clingy Jack Russell. The film was engaging from start to finish, with plenty of humorous patches to lighten the sad subject matter.

We all struggle with our relationships and the general direction of our lives; the film acknowledges this beautifully. Life is hard, yep, but sometimes we have to stop getting in our own way to get anywhere. Life is funny, excruciating, awkward, brilliant and mundane all at the same time. As Anna, Oliver’s current love interest, says at one point, ‘I don’t know what I’m doing but I want to be here’, which is sometimes all you can say.

Beginners is out now...

Watch it if you liked: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, A Single Man