REVIEW: Beginners (dir. Mills)

Because the weather is a little dismal. Because Donald Trump is back in the news. And because the latest job figures are so bad.... for all these reasons and more, you should all go and treat yourself to Mike Mills' Beginners, a comedy about love and loss lightly dusted with pixieish melancholy — or am I just thinking about Melanie Laurent's performance? She plays the film's Designated Spot of Outstanding Natural Beauty (French, whimsical, prone to wearing rollerskates indoors) but holds her nerve, shrugs off the compliments and quietly works her way into every corner and crevice of the movie — as pure a pleasure as sunlight on your skin. I felt the entire audience lean forward in their seats to better soak her up. "You're thinking about her aren't you?" asks Ewan McGregor's best friend, played by somebody or other. "You're not saying anything about her. That's how I know." B