Winner, Winner, Chicken Beginner

"Beginners" poses the age-old question: is it worth having your dad die a painful death from cancer if you get to date Melanie Laurent afterwards? Of course, your initial response is no, you love your father and barely know Melanie Laurent. But then your mind wanders to afternoons spent roller-skating through luxury hotels with the most winsome woman since Audrey Tatou, making love in said hotel with said Audrey Tatou heir-apparent, and Audrey Tatou 2.0 dressing up as Harpo Marx for no real reason. Which makes you think, well, we all gotta go at some time.

"Beginners" is a big, moist Kleenex of a movie, and not necessarily for the reasons you're expecting. Oliver's dad, Hal, has just passed away and Oliver, having spent the last several months caring for him, is understandably in a funk. As Oliver embarks on a new relationship with an actress he meets at a costume party, he sorts through the events of his father's illness and begins to re-examine his parents' complicated relationship (I probably should mention Hal came out of the closet shortly after Oliver's mom died).

But the movie is not, as you might expect, the After-School Special about accepting our Elderly Parent's Blossoming Sexuality. All of the characters struggle with love: how to get it, what to sacrifice for it, and how it elevates you. Hal has a seemingly great relationship with a goofy guy Andy, who is 30-40 years his junior. Yet Hal hides his illness from Andy and lets him date other guys, because he is, after all, 30-40 years Hal's junior. Oliver is all coiled apprehension around his girlfriend, never fully relaxing around her because, as he sees it, love never seems to work out. In a few brief scenes Mary Page Keller creates a fully realized character as Oliver's dead mother, a woman alternately bucking the conventions of her time while clinging to her son for emotional support.

The movie trips over time, bouncing back and forth from present to past, as seemingly innocuous phrases betray their roots. Big, vibrant colors fill the screen, reflecting Oliver's work as an artist and Hal's career as a museum curator. I haven't even mentioned the subtitled dog, who has no reason to work but totally does. This dog is so absurdly adorable and heartbreaking that if the movie was hyperlinked you'd touch the screen to adopt a Jack Russell terrier. Plus there's Melanie Laurent, who basically treats sadness the way Hawaiians treat "Aloha," conjuring 100 different meanings with a single look. So go see it, preferably with your dad. At the end, clutch his hand, look him in the eye, and say, "I'd never give you up, man. Not for all the Melanie Laurents in the world."