A Beginner’s Guide to Endings

An entertainingly lighthearted romp, A Beginner’s Guide to Endings details the fallout that ensues among three brothers (Jason Jones’ Nuts, Scott Caan’s Cal, and Paulo Costanzo’s Jacob) after their father (Harvey Keitel’s Duke White) kills himself and posthumously reveals that the trio are dying as a result of a sketchy medical trial he signed them up for 10 years earlier. Director Jonathan Sobol has infused A Beginner’s Guide to Endings with a fast-paced, thoroughly irreverent sensibility that results in a refreshingly (and unabashedly) entertaining atmosphere, with the admitted lack of laughs ultimately more than compensated for by the uniformly stirring performances and consistently engaging screenplay. There’s little doubt that the movie hits its stride in its almost episodic midsection, as the emphasis is placed on the three central characters’ respective efforts at dealing with the news (ie Cal decides to pop the question to old flame Miranda (Tricia Helfer), Jacob, in the movie’s sweetest scene, finally works up the courage to speak to a girl he’s had a crush on, etc). It’s worth noting, however, that this structure also ensures that certain sequences don’t fare quite as well as others, with Cal’s encounter with one of Miranda’s dangerous ex-boyfriends, which culminates with the two handcuffed to a railway track, certainly standing as an apt example of Sobol’s occasional reliance on elements of an egregiously off-the-wall nature. Such small concerns are inevitably rendered moot once the movie arrives at its incredibly satisfying and beautifully conceived finale, which, though admittedly stronger than anything preceding it, effectively ensures that A Beginner’s Guide to Endings leaves the viewer on as positive a note as one could envision.

*** out of ****