In celebration of the continued theatrical release of Mike Mills’ latest film, Beginners, we’ve been given some prizes to give away to you, our wonderful readers. As with Film Threat contests in the past, we’re going to keep this one to the comments section below. In order to win, tell us what your favorite Ewan McGregor performance is, and why. Top answer wins:
- Dropcard to download the full Beginners Soundtrack
- Drawings From the Film Beginners By Mike Mills
The next three best answers will also receive dropcards to download the full soundtrack, so it doesn’t hurt to try, right? We’re going to wrap this up by midnight, Friday, June 24, 2011, so get your comments submitted prior to then for a shot at the prizes. Good luck!
Now, for those curious about the movie being promoted by this little giveaway, here’s a trailer and some more information:
Beginners imaginatively explores the hilarity, confusion, and surprises of love through the evolving consciousness of Oliver (Ewan McGregor). Oliver meets the irreverent and unpredictable Anna (Mélanie Laurent) only months after his father Hal has passed away. This new love floods Oliver with memories of his father (Christopher Plummer) who — following 44 years of marriage — came out of the closet at age 75 to live a full, energized, and wonderfully tumultuous gay life. The upheavals of Hal’s new honesty, by turns funny and moving, brought father and son closer than they’d ever been able to be. Now Oliver endeavors to love Anna with all the bravery, humor, and hope that his father taught him.
The book Drawings From the Film Beginners By Mike Mills contains all the drawings which Mike Mills drew, and that Oliver (played by Ewan) works with in the film. Oliver has the unfortunate idea of creating an illustrated ‘History of Sadness’ as a record cover for the The Sads, including such episodes as: Neanderthal man realizes he’s outclassed by homo sapiens man, the pilgrims, industrialization, birth of the novel, pets in general and many more.” This volume also features a new series of drawings: an illustrated History Of Love which includes such chapters as: the first butt to attract, great lovers in film, flappers, free love’s not so easy, internal V.S. external problems and many more.
The prize fulfillment folks should be contacting the three of you with your prizes soon (if they haven’t already).
This made me realize that, if I had to pick a living actor whose career I’ve followed the longest—unintentionally, but happily—it would be Ewan McGregor: from Trainspotting in junior high, to Velvet Goldmine in high school, to the Star Wars prequels that somehow seemed more legit thanks to him, his performances seem like effortless extensions of the surprising roles he chooses, showing his breadth and openness.
It sounds like a cop out, but Beginners was my favorite Ewan McGregor performance. He captured the mood and subtlety of emotion of someone fascinated and inspired by the people around him. It left me with a mood—an impression—that seemed fitting set against the hazy LA backdrop and nostalgic soundtrack. He also really allowed his counterparts to stand out. This would include Arthur.
Well, I really enjoyed “Stay”. Not so much for his performance in and of itself, but it is probably my favorite movie that he just so happens to be in. I tend to like a lot of the films Mark Forester makes and I found myself becoming really moved once I began to realize where this movie was taking me. That’s really all I have to say about that. I gotta admit that “Trainspotting” is a hands down classic. But I’m staying with “Stay”.
My favorite performance by far is Big Fish. It takes a lot for me to cry during a movie because of seeing something beautiful, and McGregor helped me do that. I loved feeling that sense of wonder and magic he was going through. I felt just like his character, like a stalker always next to him and sharing the same journey.
And the experience of seeing Big Fish with my Dad was a bittersweet viewing. It’s the perfect movie for sons and fathers with rocky relationships. We were both balling like babies by the end…