Writer-director Mike Mills put all his heart and art into Beginners, a powerful, poignant autobiographical film that shows "Oliver," Mills' fictional avatar, coming to terms with his seventy-five year old father's simultaneous revelations (a) that he is gay, and (b) that he has a terminal disease. Beginners premiered at The Toronto International Film Festival, where it earned rave reviews—not the cliché kind of raves, but genuinely exuberant, effusive exclamations of praise and delight. Beginners is scheduled to hit theaters during the summer, 2011, when it can provide welcome relief from ripped-from-the-comics fare."Ewan McGregor stars as Oliver, and Christopher Plummer stars as Hal, Oliver's "tumultuously gay" father. No strangers to intense drama, ribald comedy, or brilliant performances, both McGregor and Plummer show, as The Los Angeles Times said, "a strong sense of responsibility to their real-world counterparts." Responsibility comes to life in Beginners as humor, honesty, genuine love and affection, which Oliver learns in the last days of his father's life and then attempts to carry into new love with Anna, also brilliantly portrayed by Melanie Laurent. Anna is as unpredictable and irreverent as Hal was tumultuous and exuberant, so that loving her challenges all the bravery, humor, and hope Oliver has learned from his father.