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Oliver meets the irreverent and unpredictable Anna only months after his father Hal Fields has passed away. This new love floods Oliver with memories of his father, who, following the death of his wife of 44 years, came out of the closet at age 75 to live a full, energized, and wonderfully tumultuous gay life – which included a younger boyfriend.
2011 · Directed by Mike Mills · 105 min · Drama · Romance · Comedy · Screenplay in the scene database · 18 frames
Tagline
This is what love feels like.
Plot
(Throughout the film, scenes of Oliver Fields' memories of his deceased parents are intercut, as flashbacks, into the narrative of his developing relationship with Anna Wallace.)
In Los Angeles in 2003, a few months after the death of his father, Hal, from lung cancer, 38-year-old graphic designer Oliver often thinks about his relationship with Hal near the end of his life. Hal had come out to Oliver six months after Georgia, Hal's wife of 44 years and Oliver's mother, died of cancer, and explored life as an openly gay man from the age of 75 until he died four years later. He got active in the local gay community, found love with a much-younger man named Andy, and became closer to Oliver than he had been previously. Oliver helped Hal during his cancer treatments, and he noted the grace, good humor, and, sometimes, seeming-denial with which Hal faced his fate.
Hal and Georgia had known each other since high school, and eventually she asked him to marry her, saying she could "fix" his homosexuality. He saw a psychiatrist for a time and they were married until her death, but they always had a fairly cool relationship, and Oliver recalls his childhood with an unfulfilled, but loving, Georgia, while Hal, a museum director, was often absent, both physically and emotionally. Not wanting to end up like his parents, Oliver never settled for a passionless relationship, which has left him with only Hal's Jack Russell Terrier, Arthur, who does not like to be left alone, for company.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Written by: Mike Mills
- Cinematography: Kasper Tuxen
- Edited by: Olivier Bugge Coutté
- Music: Brian Reitzell, Roger Neill, Dave Palmer
- Production design: Shane Valentino
- Produced by: Leslie Urdang, Dean Vanech, Miranda de Pencier, Jay Van Hoy
Cast
- Ewan McGregor as Oliver Fields
- Christopher Plummer as Hal Fields
- Mélanie Laurent as Anna Wallace
- Goran Višnjić as Andy
- Kai Lennox as Elliot
- Mary Page Keller as Georgia Fields
- Keegan Boos as Young Oliver
- China Shavers as Shauna
- Melissa Tang as Liz
- Amanda Payton as Party Person
Production
- Country: United States of America
- Language: English, French
- Studios: Parts & Labor, Olympus Pictures
- Budget: $3,200,000
- Box office: $14,311,701
- Themes: coming out, cancer, relationship, gay parent, lgbt, older man younger man relationship, father son relationship
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