beginners

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1532503

i do not understand why this movie was called beginners, though i vaguely recall that at some point somebody trotted out a tired cliche about all of us being beginners.  i think a more natural name would have been parallels, but i guess that name was already taken, by a movie that came out about five years later. in this universe.

anyway, this story was told with so many parallels that i cannot even.  it seemed like each character was shown to be an echo of every other character, plus they told the story in a slightly-disjointed way that i think was intended to *parallel* the way ewan mcgregor's mother experienced life.  there were so many parallels that i was convinced for most of the movie the girl was going to end up with cancer.

beginners gets two dogs upon which to project your innermost thoughts. i liked that everybody put in a good effort, but it is too bad that the final result fell so very very flat, ie, parallel to the floor.