Love is the only emotion that you can fall in and out of. And if all that falling wasn't enough, the bit in between can often be quite complex too. In Director Mike Mills' new film, he attempts to convey, through the medium of film, what being in love feels like; not only that, but he does so with a tale based on a true story.

Dealing with parents can be testing at the best of times, but Oliver (Ewan McGregor) has quite a lot to process after the death of his mother. This is due to the fact that his 75 year-old father Hal (Christopher Plummer) announces that he is actually a homosexual; he has been for quite some time, but it's only after the death of his wife – whom he loved dearly – that he could actually start living the life he's always wanted to.

This news would be enough of a curve ball for anyone, but soon after Hal falls ill and is diagnosed with cancer.

But all this happened in the past. In the present Oliver is single and the owner of his late father's dog Arthur. Despite having a strong relationship with Arthur (although he's a little on the clingy side), Oliver has been alone for some time. And then he meets Anna (Mélanie Laurent) at a fancy dress party, and everything changes.

With everything that has transpired, taking on board the time he spent with his ailing father, Oliver can learn to love again; but as he soon finds out, nothing that has happened before can necessarily make these lessons in love any easier.

You know Ewan, it was all very well starring in the hit TV series Frasier as Eddie, but I feel film's larger canvas allows me to stretch my legs.

Although Mills uses flashbacks heavily throughout, the choppy timeline strangely works. He wastes no time, for instance, in setting up the premise of Hal coming out at 75, but also that he dies soon after from his illness. All through the tentative steps that Oliver takes into his new relationship, more and more details are revealed about the one he had with his father.

It's these two simultaneous journeys that Oliver takes – one into the past and the one he's currently embarked on with Anna (and Arthur) – that help to form his impression of what love really is.

Mills recounts both these journeys to his audience in a cerebral fashion; the film almost feels like an audiobook with moving pictures in places. The film as a whole is also reminiscent of early Woody Allen, when he was both sharp and funny. If his dour recent work is anything to go by, it certainly wouldn't hurt Allen to view this as a reminder that there's still most certainly a place for films that make you feel something as well as laugh.

McGregor is surprisingly good as Oliver; he's kind of lost his way a little recently as an actor, which may have had something to do with his seduction to the dark side as a lame Obi-Wan, but puts in a restrained yet touching performance. He's also in virtually every scene, so he's lucky enough to get the necessary support from his co-stars, who also do their bit. The one exception could possibly be ER's Goran Visnjic's foppish hairstyle (worn by his character Andy, Hal's younger lover) that looks like it's related to the long, greasy follicles of Harry Enfield's stroppy teen character Kevin.

The film's director does an incredible job too. This is only his second feature – with his debut being 2005's fairly forgettable Thumbsucker – but he manages to cast an amazing amount of originality into a story that could easily have gone the made-for-TV route.

Beginners is that rare beast of being funny, original, touching and intelligent, all without being condescending, making it all too easy to fall in love with.