Tom Ford's debut has an immediate effect and an after effect. We are taken immediately by the "preciousness" of the image. Limpid, exquisite and slightly detached. The after effect is a whole other story. Colin Firth's face comes to haunt you. His pain and his deep period of reflection has a powerful, contagious effect. Colin Firth creates a character that contains a doses of his D'Arcy of Pride and Prejudice and a pinch of his Adrian LeDuc of Apartment Zero but the rest is totally inedited. His middle age man that spends a day drowning in a memory that tortures him has a resonance that touches countless personal memories. Love without other implications, because love is all there is. I applauded until my hands hurt when I found out that Firth had won the Copa Volpi at the 2009 Venice Film Fest for this role. This was so richly deserved. I doubt I'll see a better performance this year. Bravo!
Add a Review
-
annieetalain13 September 2009
-
Prismark1012 March 2014Fashion designer's Tom Ford directorial debut is strong on visuals for a low budget film. The slight storyline lacks a strong punch despite excellent acting from Julianne Moore, Nicholas Hoult and Colin Firth.
Adapted from a book by Christopher Isherwood, the film follows an unhappy single day in the life of a bereaved single gay man, George Falconer (Firth) whose partner has died in a road accident.
Falconer is an expatriate Englishman in Los Angeles in the early 1960s. A college professor teaching English to students who are about to enter the beatnik or biker generation.
The future does not matter too much to him, he wants to kill himself. We see his relationship with his partner in flashbacks including how left out he was when his partner is buried by his own family.
We also see him have a platonic but close relationship with Moore who plays another expatriate.
One of his student's (Hoult) tried to befriend him and eventually the two connect as they swim in the ocean but just as life might open up to him, fate deals another blow.
The film is slow moving and requires attention from the viewer to become involved with it.
Despite great photography, the script is weak but people look and dress wonderful. In fact its been described rather cruelly as 'Grief by Dior.' -
sol-11 November 2017Depression overwhelms a college professor on the anniversary of his boyfriend's tragic death in this drama written and directed by Tom Ford. As per Ford's latter 'Nocturnal Animals', this is a visually arresting and finely acted motion picture, further topped off with a superb Golden Globe nominated score. While some of Ford's imagery is a little ostentatious, he shows perfect restrain at other points, allowing Colin Firth to emote silently in close-up during a flashback in which he hears the news of his boyfriend's death by phone. Ford's use of slow motion as Firth drives along, watching neighbourhood kids and others works very well too; one truly gets the sense of Firth using the day to contemplate whether he can go on living or whether he should poetically end it all. There is, however, no escaping how slim the narrative is and not all of the subplots that crop up necessarily gel. Julianne Moore's turn as his best friend adds surprisingly little to his journey, except for some unanswered questions about their past together. It is hard to know what to make of Jon Kortajarena's gigolo either, however, Nicholas Hoult has a nice turn with a lot of suggestiveness as one of Firth's students with an unusual interest in him. Indeed, while all the little bits and pieces here might not necessarily add up, the experience of 'A Single Man' resonates long after it is over.
-
claudiaeilcinema16 September 2009Of all the films I saw at the 66 Venice Film Festival, 12 in all, "A Single Man" is the one that stayed with me. I must admit, it wasn't love at first sight. My first reaction was a sort of rebellion against, what I felt was "far too beautiful" and slightly cold. But now, days after, the mood and guts of the film come back to my mind as if asking me to see it again. I will, as soon as possible. Behind the apparent stillness of the film there is a torrent of emotions and Colin Firth is at the very center of it. A day of grieving for a man who lived his life within a perfectly color coordinated world, coordinated in every sense of the word until death comes unexpectedly to turn everything upside down. I couldn't help but remember another Firth creation "Apartment Zero" (1988) where the color coordination of that character was gray, zero and the hinting of color coming into his life turned his world upside down. I loved and adored that performance and "A Single Man" reminds me, not so much for its similarities but for its differences. It's actually forcing me to go out and search all of Colin Firth's work I've missed. I also believe that Tom Ford, a living fashion icon, is here to stay as a filmmaker.
-
ElMaruecan8220 November 2019It was French poet and writer Lamartine who said "one person is missing and the whole word seems depopulated". George Falconer lives in such a world as he's mourning the man who has shared his life for sixteen years... and the grieving process has taken him to an existential dead-end. His Jim (Matthew Goode) whom we see lying in a snowy road after a car accident was more than a life companion but a soul-mate. With him, George had found as perfect contentment as perfect could get, and with that tragic accident, a part of himself died too; the loss is so overwhelming that George intends to kill himself. Colin Firth is the titular single man, resigned to end a life that has lost all purpose.
It is a bleak introduction to Tom Ford's adaptation of Christopher Isherwood's novel, a powerful examination of the struggle to get over a loss but what would you expect from a movie whose first screen title is "Fade to Black"? The movie is emotionally loaded and restrains itself so much you can sense the electricity before the storm, but we get to have a few sunny flashbacks to understand that George wasn't born a misanthropic sourpuss. That the film features a same-sex couple is almost incidental, there's no sex scene and the smaller moments the better: a cozy conversation on a sofa, a discussion about the past in a beach, yet "A Single Man" couldn't have been as powerful with a man and a woman and for that, you can't do without the film's context.
The story is set in the midst of the Cuba missiles crisis when the world's future was hanging on a thread and America was the leader of the Free World, but with a rather selective approach of freedom as far as personal lifestyles went. A man couldn't live his sexuality if it wasn't the "right one", living as a homosexual was an ordeal in the public sphere and in private, it was tougher to find someone. Yet George found one and could conceal under a façade of pure clean-cut British rigidity his real self. With Jim, he found not just love but authenticity in a world that relied too much on slogans (mostly political), appearances and hypocrisy. It's interesting that the couple in this film can work as a metaphor for being free or true to our nature under a society not much traditional as it was reactionary (American values against the Red Scare).
There's an important scene where George lectures his student about fear, using World War II and racism as examples, and the notion of fear is connected to causes that can be either real or factice. The point is that everything has a cause, not all the causes are real, but they exist as fabricated. What matters then is the truth, tending to it, whether through History or from experience: one of his student Kenny (Nicholas Hoult) hates the past and is scared by the future (during the Cuban crisis, many people were), what's left from it? Maybe the present and the way it might build him to his own realizations and understanding of the world. This is basically the premise of that harrowing journey where George contemplates his life and the probability of its termination.
And if anything, the film isn't about the struggles of homosexuals in the 60s, though there are references to the prevailing homophobia, it's about someone who lost the balance of his life, the personal tunnel to his own truth, the link between the present and the future, and condemned himself to isolation then suicide because there was no future to conceive with anyone. He has a friend named Charley (Julianne Moore), she's divorced, disillusioned about life, but she loves him and for all the joyful and fun moments they spend together (Firth and Moore have great chemistry), George can't connect the present with her to any bright vision of the future. The film says something about the value of the present as one step that makes you climb the stairs of your life. It's only after he meets again Kenny, the student who admires him (and a little more) that he starts feeling the stairs can be worth climbing.
But that's only an interpretation of the story, one must take the film at face value and appreciate its "present"; a man drowning in an ocean of loneliness that gives its full meaning to the title, so isolated a man that he actually raises the interest of people around him because -and maybe George doesn't realize it himself- he's still part of his world. The film makes no secret about George's planned suicide but it's expressed in an interesting way: he lives the last day at its fullest, staring at muscular tennis players' bodies as if he was photographing them in his mind, a beautiful blonde girl's hair, he caresses a dog who reminds him of his friend's. These moments are so intense that it might leave the impression that Tom Ford over-designed his film, made it too stylish for its own good as if he was trying to channel Bergman.
I didn't mind that actually, it's interesting that the more intensely George looked at his world, the more it meant his preparation to death, looking at the pink smog of L.A., he says that even the ugliest thing have a beautiful side, as if people focused on beauty had the ugliest thoughts and missed the best part of what living is about. When he meets the young Spanish model, it's romantic in an artificial and abrupt way, when he meets Kenny again, they go swimming, the present doesn't reveal any truth but shows him a way like it almost saved his life at a tragicomic moment involving a gun and the right pillow position to pull the trigger. If you can't envision a bright future, trust the present's small moments to take you there... -
Benedict_Cumberbatch21 January 2010Tom Ford, you surprised me. I don't really follow the fashion world too closely at all, so although I naturally knew his name, I wasn't familiar with his creations. I haven't read the Christopher Isherwood novel (yet), so Colin Firth and Julianne Moore were the ones who actually got me excited for this project. And I wasn't disappointed – it actually exceeded all my expectations, and alongside Jane Campion's "Bright Star" (which unfortunately is being almost completely overlooked this awards season), it's the most poetic 2009 film I have seen so far.
Firth, always elegant and fascinating, plays George Falconer, a British professor in 1960's Los Angeles trying to cope with the death of his long-term partner, Jim (Matthew Goode). It's been eight months since Jim's death, and George decided to end his life by the end of the day – and it's this day we see in this admirable film. George spends time with his best friend Charley (the always wonderful Julianne Moore), with whom he had something in the past (and still has hopes of winning him over again), and now is an unhappy divorcée. A young pupil, Kenny (Nicholas Hoult, who has grown up a lot since "About a Boy" and "The Weather Man"), who clearly is infatuated with George, harasses him until he finally gives him the attention he craves. These two different encounters will be decisive for George. As sad as the overall tone and the theme of mourning can be, "A Single Man" is by no means depressing. Ford uses and abuses of "artsy", but very efficient and intriguing camera angles, and a classy score by Polish composer Abel Korzeniowski. Eyes, lips are shown in evidence throughout the film, and naturally, the costumes are all superb.
George's long day's journey reminds me a lot of Virginia Woolf's classic "Mrs. Dalloway". Marleen Gorris was able to do a correct but somewhat cold adaptation of Woolf's novel in 1997 (scripted by Woolf scholar and talented actress Eileen Atkins, featuring the magnificent Vanessa Redgrave in the title role), but I thought she wasn't much to blame for the film's coldness since that's one of the most complex novels to be translated to the screen. After seeing "A Single Man", I even dare to say Tom Ford could do an interesting and very personal adaptation of "Mrs. Dalloway". Also, this is one of the sexiest films since Alfonso Cuaron's "Y Tu Mama Tambien" (2001) and Bernardo Bertolucci's "The Dreamers" (2003), and Nicholas Hoult's incandescent presence has a lot to do with that. He gives an efficient, brave performance for an actor his age, and although I'm sure Jamie Bell ("Billy Elliot"), who was the first choice for the role, would've been terrific, Hoult doesn't disappoint. It's not every day we're given a film with such emotional intensity and exuberant sensuality, and "A Single Man" proves that Tom Ford is certainly a promising director, having given us not just a great first film, but one also one of the year's finest and most unusual creations. A film to be felt and celebrated, and I can't wait for the DVD - it's a keeper. 10/10. -
SnoopyStyle12 March 2015It's 1962. George Falconer (Colin Firth) struggles months after his life partner Jim (Matthew Goode) dies in a car accident. He wasn't allowed to attend the service. He intends to shoot himself. His friend Charley (Julianne Moore) tries to cheer him up. His student Kenny Potter (Nicholas Hoult) becomes attached inappropriately.
The pace is deliberate. There is a lack of drive. The sense of sadness can overwhelm the movie at times. Director Tom Ford has a great eye for visual beauty. It's a magnificent looking movie. Every scene has a meticulous style. Nicholas Hoult has a great creepy vibe. Colin Firth is solid as a reserved man on the brink of breakdown. -
lucymeyerrisi18 September 2009A stunning outing for Tom Ford. The images are, clearly, out of an aesthete's mind without being shallow, ever. I believe there is a dramatic reason behind every frame. Colin Firth, looking truly handsome, goes through a day of torment with remarkable civility. I felt involved and shaken and couldn't help but make mine his pain. The flashbacks with Matthew Goode are truly vivid and truthful. This is a step forward in explaining through images that love is love no matter who you are, where you come from or what your circumstances are. It could have been a man and a woman, the fact that it's a man and a man is almost irrelevant. We recognize the feel of it and Colin Firth's performance is the magic stroke that makes that not only possible but natural. It is a sensational debut for fashion star Tom Ford. True to himself an artist that promises great, wonderful things for the future. I can't wait.
-
intern-8822 June 2012Tom Ford's directorial debut A Single Man, based on the 1964 Christopher Isherwood novel, is a thing of beauty. From a lingering shot of a perfectly mascaraed eyelash to a languorous close-up of full, plump lips dragging protractedly on a cigarette, Eros makes his presence felt everywhere.
It's not just the human form itself that is so enchanting – and enchanted – here. Objects, too, whether a car dashboard or man's suit, ooze sex appeal. Unfortunately, it is this aspiration to the sublime, this self-consciously artful approach, not to mention the too- mentionable fact that Ford is a fashion designer, that has led some critics to wonder if there's too much surface in this movie. A Single Man looks wonderful, they say, but it glosses its content, it loses its depth. Even the excellent Colin Firth – slim to the point of ripped – looks just too damn good.
Which is strange, you'd think, given the depressed subject matter. Set in Los Angeles in 1962, A Single Man is a day in the life of aging English professor George Falconer (Colin Firth), who's struggling to come to terms with the death of his partner Jim (Matthew Goode) in a car crash. It is ostensibly a portrait of a grieving man, one whose mourning for the man he loves and has now lost is stunted and repressed. After all, you can't mourn for a love which, even in the early 1960s, still dare not speak its name. He wasn't even invited to the funeral.
But while A Single Man is a sometimes moving study of living after the end of one's reason for living, its scope is broader. The Western world, too, seems at its end. In the background, the Cuban missile crisis is playing itself out, a symbol, it seems, of a world poised on the edge of self-annihilation. But the sense of exhaustion, the sense of a world consuming itself, goes deeper. While there might well be a postwar boom, with cars and TVs and dental products available everywhere, there is little in the way of euphoria. Rather there is a sense that something is being lost, that the best which has been thought and said in the world, the Great Tradition, the liberal arts, is being lost to the unfeeling, virtueless world of commerce and consumerism.
Not for nothing is our single man here a professor of English, a voice of that disappearing world of high culture. Assessing his current students, Falconer notes that they 'aspire to nothing more than a corporate job' and raising families of 'Coke-drinking, TV-watching children'.
If Falconer himself is struggling to see a reason for going on, for living after the end, A Single Man is also struggling to see much future for humanity as a whole. In the portentous words of Kenny, Falconer's flirty, arch student, 'Death is the future'.
But if the death drive in a decadent early 60s California seems to be in the ascendance in A Single Man – a fact rather unsubtly emphasised by the inclusion in Ford's screenplay of the question of whether Falconer will shoot himself – it also explains why the film seems so concerned with surfaces, with enchanting the appearance of things. To death, to Thanatos, A Single Man counterposes life, Eros. He might be stranded in a dying, muffled world, but beauty is constantly arresting and taking possession of Falconer. While a colleague harangues him about nuclear war, Falconer's attention is caught by two men playing tennis, their naked chests and stomachs glistening in the autumnal heat; while a secretary is informing him that someone has asked for his address, Falconer is drawn to her eyes, her mouth, her hair. A Single Man sublimates. It gives to the everyday an allure, a beauty which, just occasionally, will take Falconer away from his dream of death.
But only occasionally. Because it can't stop time. Throughout A Single Man the loudly ticking clock is a symbol of the harsh, unsentimental, all-too-rationalising modern world. It is also the herald of the inevitable. Little wonder that in A Single Man, that which is not a product of human thought and society, that which is not rational – namely, feeling and sentiment – is idealised. 'Sometimes I have moments of absolute clarity', remarks Falconer. 'I can feel, rather than think; the world feels so fresh. It's as though it just came into existence.' The desire to stop time, to have the 'now' forever is as suicidally death-laden as the world that is exhausting culture, killing feeling. But in A Single Man this decadent posture becomes an ideology. It urges a plunge – literally so, given the underwater body imagery – into a world of pure sensation, of pure, thoughtless physicality. In other words, an immersion in surfaces.
A Single Man bears an uncanny resemblance to Thomas Mann's Death in Venice. But Mann's novella was an ironic portrait of art in the era of its impossibility. Things were too easily disenchanted; there was no elevated meaning to be embodied in art, religious or otherwise. Instead, beauty was too easily reducible to sexuality, the sublime to sublimated homosexuality. A Single Man, however, refuses to break the spell; it refuses to yield to the temptation to reveal the sex-and-sweat root of its aesthetic – for all the homosexual longing, there is no sex in this vision.
Instead, the vision, despite its subject matter, is almost uplifting, almost affirmative – there is life after the end, it seems to say. 'I had a hunch you were a romantic', Kenny tells Falconer. And so he must remain in this beautifully superficial film. -
Eumenides_010 March 2010Colin Firth plays George Falconer, an English Literature teacher who wakes up ready to commit suicide. For the past eight months, George has been grieving the death of his lover, Jim, for the past 16 years. Unable to live without him anymore, George prepares his last day on Earth, which includes giving one last lesson to his class, on the subject of fear; buying bullets for his revolver; and at night having a final party with his best friend, Charley.
George just wants to get through the day and kill himself with dignity after the party. The movie basically follows him through the day as he makes his preparations, and the big question is, Is he really going to do it? The movie is not easy to watch. For one thing, it paints an unbearable portrait of grief. Colin Firth displays pain in his voice and face throughout most of the movie; even when he's smiling or seemingly content, there's in his eyes a vestige of sadness and weariness. Secondly, George is such an instantly likable character, it's painful to watch him going about his life knowing he wants to put an end to it. It's so easy to fall in love with him, that his pain becomes ours very quickly.
The simplicity of the movie's premise is made up by Firth's outstanding performance, and also by Julianne Moore's. She plays Charley, a woman he once dated, and the only person who knows he's homosexual. I don't know how long she is in the movie, perhaps 10 or 15 minutes, but in that short time she gives an amazing performance as a woman who doesn't have much to look for, like George, who doesn't have anyone else in her life, no dreams, no future, just memories of her good days with George.
Tom Ford also complements the movie by giving it a very distinctive visual style: pretty much every scene is unique in the way it looks and the way it is shot. One of my favorite examples is the way he portrays the cluster of emotions in George, visualizing his pain by showing imaginary scenes of him drowning. Not only is it a lovely metaphor, but also connects with a scene in the movie that is the closest thing to happiness George feels in it.
Although this was Tom Ford's debut movie, and he showed what a good filmmaker he can be, for me the revelation of this movie was Abel Korzeniowski, a Polish film composer who brings a unique sound of melancholy to the movie. How he was ignored by the Oscars is beyond me.
A lot of things in this movie were ignored by the Oscars this year, and yet I think this movie, being the intimate character study that it is, has better chances of outliving all other movies in competition in years to come. I hope so, because movies like this is the direction cinema needs to go in. -
I would have given this movie a solid 9 or even a 10....however the ending left me in tears and so depressed that I couldn't bear to give it a high score...
The story is amazing, such a great journey through this man's life and loss and how to learn to appreciate the small things in life, however once things start to turn around for him in the end... HE HAS A HEART ATTACK AND DIES!!! I love movies that stir up emotions in me, make me feel and make me think, but I have a hard time enjoying movies that make me leave depressed...
All in all this is an amazing story and everyone should see it at least once. -
albertodr0714 September 2009A startling surprise. Tom Ford's debut as a director tells, in exquisite images, a very personal story, based on a short story by Christopher Isherwood. What makes everything fly so high is a fantastic performance by Colin Firth. I've followed Colin Firth career from the very beginning "Tumbledown", "Another Country", "Apartment Zero" where he creates a character never seen on the screen before or since, "Pride and Prejudice" where he reinvented D'Arcy's character, "Fever Pitch" where he showed a new face in riveting tragicomic strokes. So I should have been prepared for something new and special and maybe I was but the effect his performance in "A Single Man" had on me was (is) totally unexpected. It changed my perception of things, it made me look inwards and think of things I had put aside. I can't wait to see it again. I saw the look of love and that look remains knocking in my mind as if to keep me awake and aware. Tom Ford takes enormous visual risks in the telling of his story. It may work for some, some others will certainly dismiss or ridicule. I, for one, stand up and applaud.
-
willcundallreview16 July 2014A Single Man is a drama about love, death and also how to deal with these things in your day to day life. The message it shows can be powerful at times in this movie(not always) but still has the heart that a film like this needs to reaffirm "life is worth living". With some great acting seen mainly from it's lead man and an artistic look that we don't always see so much, A Single Man turns out to be solidly pretty good, and here below is why I felt that about it all.
The story is slow and for such a short running time really has to cram everything in, although any longer and I think most would be sick of it. It has a deep core of emotion and you really get this when it is just the main character reflecting on certain events, it can really strike a cord with you and lets you delve into his mind. It also I think likes to deal with the fact that homosexuality was very frowned upon in that era and so the film really smacks the point down that, people then were gay but looked down on also in society.
Colin Firth is very good in this and no doubt why he received an Oscar Nomination, his portrayal is as said emotional yet when he seems most out of it, he deals with getting back to his life well, and Firth fits the mould well. I wasn't too keen in Julianne Moore here, she isn't bad whatsoever but she just seemed to over dramatic and the character maybe is to blame, but her talents are wasted on such an annoying woman. Nicholas Hoult finally brings a bit of new acting styles to the film, but never up stages Firth at any point, Colin controls this all the way through.
Tom Ford the director injects an artistic vision in to this which can at times pay off, but also not do that well, it can very annoying to see the shades of colour used and the sets can seem as if they are too glossy maybe. Hand it to Ford on the writing, he amongst others do well in the script department and even simple actions are done in a way you just know is straight from the page. Although the sets aren't the best, they are unique I will say and some parts look amazing here.
My main criticism is mostly in the sense that the story can be dull at times, very very slow and although Firth never suffers from this, he certainly doesn't gain from the speed. As I also alluded to with the artistic part, the colours and shades used when people are happy and sad make for a very annoying and over used effect which yes, work for the first few times but by the end, it is just too bright in most senses.
Who will like it, well if you want a Drama that deals with life and death then this could be a good one to watch, if you are slightly down in life yourself, this isn't for you as parts can be, well very depressing. It has the odd bit of comedy thrown in, not massive laughs but the odd smile and chuckle and so it can brighten up your day so there's a point for anyone who wants a Drama with both good and bad.
Overall it is Solidly Kind of Good, not quite Good mostly resulting from the more dull parts of the movie. It is far from bad though and in truth, if you want to be an actor, look no further than seeing Colin Firth so in this, truly one of the role models in the modern acting world. One more thing, For anyone who likes the 60's, this could be a great trip back, the sets and settings are truly 60's style and if anything Tom Ford over does the style used throughout the movie. -
magdillane21 January 2012Possible spoiler. A grieving man, college professor, homosexual, has lost his long time lover/partner. His every day life since that fateful event is colored gray. Difficult film to critique...All in all, an uneven first(?)time direction by Tom Ford. My first thought was to fast forward, finally I just turned it off and waited until the next day to watch the last 45 minutes. My scoring is probably generous. I keep having to remind myself that this was the 60's era, long before the the gay revolution. I never understood the young student character, but the Spaniard character was a great cameo role. Hated, absolutely hated the ending... Why not cut while George is sitting on the edge of the bed with the George talking over the shot, brilliant. Enjoyed Firth in the classroom expounding about fear. I appreciate Firth as an actor more and more. He alone carries this poignant and flawed film from beginning to end.
-
andrewors15 November 2009I've seen "A Single Man" twice already at different screenings and I believe I will see it again and again. Yes, for me is one of those films. Thank you Tom Ford and thank you Colin Firth. I love Colin and my favorite performance of his dates back to 1989 "Apartment Zero". George Falconer, Colin's character in "A Single Man" seems to me the flip side of Adrian Leduc, Colin's character in "Apartment Zero". George has had a real life and grieves the death of his companion. Adrian Leduc never had a companion and his grief is based on his total inability to connect with people. George believes that human connection is at the center of everything and puts that thought into practice. Adrian worships James Dean, George doesn't think that much of James Dean, he actually says it. Adrian wears white shirts made of cheap material and he launders them himself. George wears impeccably cut white shirts that he has professionally laundered. They seem tiny details but they become overwhelming when you know both characters. George even hurts himself and wears a band aid just like Adrian during the last 15 minutes of "Apartment Zero" I love Colin Firth because he's an actor that can give you so much doing, seemingly, so little. It compel us to participate and include our own thoughts and feelings. The love of George for his lover is as pungent and real as anything I've ever seen on the screen. It is a cinematic triumph and as I'm writing about it I feel a sort of urge to see it again, just as it happened to me when I saw "Apartment Zero" for the first time. I felt then that Colin deserved an Oscar nomination for Adrian, he will get it for George. This is the first comment I ever wrote and it comes out of a profound need to share this emotion. When movies can do that, film lovers all over the world have real reason to celebrate and I'm celebrating.
-
larry-41124 September 2009I attended the North American Premiere of "A Single Man" at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival. This is the first foray into film for esteemed fashion designer Tom Ford, directing from his own script based on the Christopher Isherwood novel. In a word, "A Single Man" is a triumph.
It is easily one of the most Oscar-deserving films of the year. Colin Firth's performance screams "Best Actor" (which he did win at the Venice Film Festival), Julianne Moore is exquisite, and Nicholas Hoult (About a Boy, Skins) is on his way to stardom. I was simply awestruck.
The curtain rises on a despondent George (Firth) having lost his longtime partner. Sapped of energy and will, he struggles to wake each day and function as the brilliant college professor he's expected to be. Few notice the change in him, but one student sees George as a magnet pulling him forward to a place even he doesn't understand. Kenny (Hoult) seems to glow like an angel in George's dark world and, yet, is a puzzle and presents a challenge which he doesn't necessarily want to confront at this stage in his life. As is his custom, he turns to Charlotte (Moore) for a warm shoulder but the temperature drops amidst the chill surrounding George's bleak existence.
Everything about this film -- the look, colors, pacing, shots, composition, cinematography, costumes, soundtrack -- says that an extraordinary amount of love and care went into it. Special mention to director of photography Eduard Grau and editor Joan Sobel for their keen abilities to work lockstep with Ford in projecting his vision onto the screen. Abel Korzeniowski's score is haunting and moving. Despite his design genius, Ford was generous enough to entrust costume designer Arianne Phillips with the freedom to work unencumbered. Production designer Dan Bishop, with art direction by Ian Phillips and set decorator Amy Wells, created two worlds -- a cold, stark one in which George sees only hopelessness, and another warm, colorful one in which he has hope.
What stays with the viewer, though, is the enigmatic friendship between George and Kenny. Nicholas Hoult is absolutely mesmerizing in this. The way Ford shot him made people gasp. He's lit, framed, and shot like an Adonis. Of course, that's the idea here. This will definitely be a break out role for the 19-year-old. The camera loves him, and it's a pretty daring performance.
Most of all, this is a tour de force for Firth and a stunning achievement which is destined to be a highlight of his distinguished career. The range of emotions and the extent to which his character must convey them through his eyes and facial expressions, with the copious use of long takes without dialogue, left me wide-eyed with wonder.
This is the stuff of great movies. They don't get much better than this. -
cllrdr-121 November 2009I loved Isherwood's novel (it's a novel, not a short story as a previous poster claimed) ever since it appeared back in 1964, to scathing reviews. Gay love wasn't taken seriously back then. Stonewall was five years away. But Isherwood was always his own man. Over the years I've mentioned the book to gay filmmakers, several of whom knew it and liked it. But all were chary of adapting a stream-of-consciousness narrative to the screen. That Tom Ford (of all people) has taken it on and done so well by it is rather astonishing. Yes, being the Fashion God that he is the film looks lovely. But it isn't all "look." Ford really understands what Isherwood was driving at. And while casting an actor as great as Colin Firth is a logical production decision, knowing what to do with him requires real talent. And Ford has talent by the ton. Matthew Goode is lovely. Nicholas Hoult a real surprise -- especially if you know him only for "About a Boy." And Julianne Moore is perfect as always. So much better (and more important) than "Brokeback Mountain."
-
ClaytonDavis10 December 2009First time writer/director Tom Ford, adapts the novel by Christopher Isherwood, A Single Man starring Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, and Matthew Goode.
When College Professor George (Firth) loses his lover Jim (Goode) to a tragic accident while visiting his family, George endures a high level of depression and despair. Not even his long time friend Charley (Moore), who has a heavy drinking hand, knows the depth of his pain. But when he encounters a student with a seemingly high zest for learning (Nicholas Hoult), George may have got more than he bargained for.
The artistic integrity and liberties taken by Ford here are some of the best by a debut director in quite sometime. Ford knows his material and knows his power in the directing chair. Though at times, the film can drag and lag throughout, there's no denying the velocity and vulnerability given by the actors, more notably, Colin Firth.
In the performance of his career, Firth examines a man with no will to go on to the next stage of his life. As he loses his world in a single whim, his day in Los Angeles could not seem more empty. Firth executes this feeling with poise and veracity. Mostly worn on his heartrending features, Firth knows no boundaries of an actor. He goes after each feeling and emotion with effortless rage and honorably cruelty.
Julianne Moore, in her brief screen time, is magical and utterly charismatic in her role of Charley. She's tender and jovial but under the layers lies a completely devastating performance, one that Oscar can hopefully take note of this awards season. After the film's heart wrenching ending, you'll take Moore's character home with you, completely distraught and hoping for safety.
Matthew Goode, completely warm in his respective role is memorable and gives his all in his minimal viewing on screen. Hoult is an extraordinary talent with many great roles ahead of him in the future.
In the end however, Ford's decisions with cinematography by Eduard Guau are the true achievement of the film. Aside from the breathtaking works by Firth and Moore, the cinematography stands out as brilliant piece of cinema style. He's made a stamp for himself early on in his venture into cinema.
The narrative is slow and at times dreary, but performers will pull you through along with a decent score, A Single Man gets the job done with truth and candor. -
AlanSKaufman20 January 2010Loneliness and loss frame the movie A Single Man. George's life partner Jim dies in a car accident. George has lost his world and contemplates suicide while everyone around him is fearful that their world will end, too, during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.
George's flashbacks with Jim focus on their personalities, rather than on their sex, unlike so many other movies of today, where "making love" predominates "love". Yet the emphasis centers on their good times together - almost too good to be true. Herein lies a paradox, because if it really was so, then George had a better life than most of us, and frankly, it's difficult to feel too sorry for him. Get on with your life, buddy, and be thankful for what you had!
On the other hand, after an emotionally arousing but apparently nonsexual encounter with Kenny (here again the theme of love versus making love), George puts away his gun and burns his letters of goodbye, only to then suffer a fatal heart attack. In his dying moments he reunites with his beloved Jim, but we can only speculate whether it's merely reveries or authentic life after death. The credits roll at this point, so we need also wonder about Kenny's state of mind when he finds George's body. Life and its suffering do go on.
The film's advertising is slightly misleading in that George is shown lying next to Charley, his woman friend with whom he had a past relationship. Sure, this is designed to attract straight viewers, but anyone hungry for psychologically rather than sexually mature scenes between a man and woman will find it here.
We are born single and usually die alone. A Single Man dramatizes our loneliness in a powerful and literally haunting way. I seriously recommend watching this film alone to let it capture you in its rumination. -
jboothmillard27 September 2010The biggest reason to see this film for me was to see if I would agree with the fact that the leading actor was nominated the Academy Award, and of course I did. Basically, set in the 1960's, English Professor George Falconer (BAFTA winning, and Oscar and Golden Globe nominated Colin Firth), originally from Britain, is living in Los Angeles and isn't feeling like his life is pointless. Eight months ago his partner of sixteen years, Jim (Matthew Goode), died in a car accident, and Jim's family weren't planning on telling George, or having him at the funeral. Deciding that he doesn't want to live anymore, George first wants to spend a last day getting things in order before he commits suicide in the evening. As he gets everything ready for the potential suicide, bullets for his gun and a resting spot in his house, he reminisces about his time with Jim. But also, as he spends time with people who see that he is not his usual chirpy self, he sees that there is actually beauty in the world when you look closer. People including Spanish immigrant, aspiring actor and gigolo Carlos (Jon Kortajarena), his best friend also from England who secretly lusts for him despite him being gay, Charley (Golden Globe nominated Julianne Moore), and English student Kenny Porter (About a Boy's Nicholas Hoult) who is overly curious about his teacher, maybe in a loving way. It eventually comes to the point when George is going to commit suicide, but after a few interruptions it looks like he may have changed his mind, but he still dies from a natural heart attack. Also starring Paulette Lamori as Alva, Ryan Simpkins as Jennifer Strunk, Ginnifer Goodwin as Mrs. Strunk, Teddy Sears as Mr. Strunk, Paul Butler as Christopher Strunk and Aaron Sanders as Tom Strunk. Firth does very well as the gay and not wanting to live anymore teacher, Moore does an impeccable English accent, and Hoult does an impeccable American accent. I think the really clever thing about the film is that the colour is really faded/tinted, and when something meant to be beautiful happens the colour goes really vibrant. As an overall film, it is not so much suspenseful, you just keep watching to see what Firth is going to do next, so it is a really likable drama. It was nominated the BAFTA for Best Costume Design, and it was nominated the Golden Globe for Best Original Score for Abel Korzeniowski. Good!
-
susannah-straughan-118 October 2009With Tom Ford at the helm, the very least you'd expect from his adaptation of Christopher Isherwood's novel is a parade of gorgeous men in well-cut suits. Certainly there's enough Kennedy-era period detail here to satisfy the most ardent fan of Mad Men (and an uncredited voice cameo from Jon Ham). But the meticulously edited trailer gives no hint of the warmth and humour that underscore this potentially bleak meditation on love and loss.
The action takes place over the course of just one day (and night) -- 30 November 1962 -- in the life of handsome, middle-aged college professor George (Colin Firth). Like his friend, neighbour and one-time lover Charley (Julianne Moore), George is an expat in LA. He has a good job and a well-appointed home in a picture-perfect suburban street, but since the death of his long-term lover Joe (Matthew Goode) a few months earlier, George has been going through the motions. Now today it appears that he is putting his affairs in order, with a view to ending it all.
I must confess that I never swooned over Colin Firth's Mr Darcy back in the 90s and I've found it increasingly hard to relate to the repressed, lovelorn and frankly lumpen Englishmen he often plays. But here he's a revelation. As George's day unfolds, a series of reveries -- erotic, nostalgic, humorous and sad -- reveal the man behind the immaculately suited exterior. Whether perched on the loo wryly observing his neighbours, lavishing praise on a bemused secretary, or enduring a discourse on bomb shelters from a colleague (Lee Pace), Firth shows a welcome lightness of touch. He's tender and tolerant as Moore's gin-sodden hostess berates him for his inability to be the (heterosexual) man she needs. And his obsessive-compulsive fumbling with a gun and a sleeping bag are hilarious.
Moore expertly conveys the fragility and hopelessness of a woman once married and once feted for her looks, who is now staring into the abyss through the bottom of a bottle of Tanqueray's. It reminded me of some of her best work -- in Safe, Boogie Nights and The Hours -- and made me wish she'd stop wasting her talent playing second fiddle to the likes of Nicolas Cage and Samuel L Jackson.
It's a film in which the camera restlessly prowls in search of physical perfection: in the well-tended gardens of George's neighbourhood; the piercing blue eyes of flirtatious student Kenny (Nicholas Hoult); and the chiselled looks of Goode's doomed lover. But the script, co-written by Ford and David Scearce, ensures that this never descends into pastiche or glossy melodrama. -
dimakorou17 January 2014------------- MY RATING: 73/100 -------------
*CONTAINS SPOILERS*
"A Single Man" is a film involving around a mid-age homosexual Englishman in the 1960s who resides in the US, works as a professor and suffers from the loss of his boyfriend in a car accident.
The movie has the perfect melancholic tone which is only enhanced by its majestic soundtracks and probably the best cinematic filming for a drama movie. As the movie progresses and with the knowledge that the protagonist is to kill himself at the end of the day, we get to see how a man who is about to die (and knows it) reacts his last hours. He is getting distracted at his work, he notices undetectable facial and body details and sees the colors much more brightly.
Undoubtedly, the movie, through its protagonist, makes you wonder about several important things. First, about our society and how fear is distorting facts (or "fake facts" as the splendid professor would say) only to manipulate the masses in the end, starting with consumerism and political ideology to fascism and racism. How a set of stereotypes are forbidding willing individuals to live their lives without fear and how political correctness is shaping a convenient, boring and predictable society. Secondly, how youth is full of energy, optimism, nosiness and confidence and how an older man is curious about those attributes which diminish with age. Thirdly, how "unwaiting" events can fundamentally change your mind while it is fate which will have it its way in the most ironic way. I will never forget how George put his gun in the desk and locked, how he burned the letters he made for his suicide, only to die minutes later from heart attack. And fourthly, how surprising and depressing is to realize that for every man there is only one possible future: death.
The movie also has (at least for me) a spiritual side. The colleague enters George's life and makes him reconsider his decision to kill himself. We even see him taking George's gun and sleep with it to prevent him from his act, without explaining us how the young man knew the protagonist is planning to die. For me, the young man who step in the last day of George's life is some sort of a "guardian angel" or Jim's reincarnation.
However, "A Single Man" is damaged by unnecessary/unrealistic additions (like Carlos and even the colleague), distorting the direction the movie is heading from its first minutes. I, personally, would like to see how a man who is going to kill himself spends his last day, every preparation and detail and then go on with the inevitable act, all dressed up with the memories and the reasons our character has taken this tragic decision. Spawning a homosexual colleague who notices that his professor shares the same sexual preference and a Mexican who originally tries to get a free bottle of whiskey are unnecessary, unrealistic and a bit of cliché. Cliché goes for the character as well, why all homosexuals must be portrayed as Englishmen?
All and all, the movie delivers in the end. Just not exactly what you expected... -
scoobysnax765432114 January 2010I couldn't fit my whole review here, so please go to Lost In Reviews.com to find it and read more. Thank you.
Would you ever suspect that you would love a film by a fashion designer turned first time director? I didn't quite know what to expect from Tom Ford as he told his version of the book, A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood. I knew from the trailer that everyone was going to look their very best, but not much more until I sat down to watch it.
A Single Man is the story of George, an English professor in 1962 that has recently lost his partner of 16 years to a car accident. With the disapproving family not allowing him to attend the funeral, George is left to fester in his own pain for 8 months. When he wakes up from yet another painful night of memories, he decides to end his life and we spend the rest of the film watching George live his last day with moments of clarity.
We see George in almost every scene in the film and get little bits from other great actors here and there like Julianne Moore, who plays Charley, his neighbor and best friend, who he has been very close to for years. We spend the most time with her and she does not disappoint. Charley has come over to California from London as well as George and so they have a past. She spends her days passing the time with a bottle of gin or applying makeup, but when she has George over, she is also very attentive and a true friend while still getting drunk. Matthew Goode plays Jim, the deceased partner and lover, and we get to know him from George's flashbacks. He seems to be just perfect with George. They seem to literally complete each other. Every flashback of Jim will put a smile on your face.
Ginnifer Goodwin plays a nice neighbor and Lee Pace stops in as a co- worker at school. Both parts are very brief and I would have loved more of each. They are both great actors and even in the few scenes we see them in, we could see a history with George. I love Ginnifer in Big Love and she seemed just as warm to George in this film. Just with a kind hello or a smile in her eyes, you could see that they knew each other more than we get to see. I imagined that when her husband went to work, she would have him over for tea or something completely innocent like that. Lee Pace was in one of my favorite movies, The Fall and I was actually taken back by the utter lack of use of his character. He completely fit the look of the other characters as well and already has a sixties look. Kenny comes along, played by Nicholas Hoult, who you may remember from About a Boy with Hugh Grant. He is almost all grown up now and not afraid to approach his professor and ask him some very personal questions.
As George tries to get through the day so that he can get home and get things in order, many things get in the way, life. He begins to talk with his student Kenny in a way that might be more romantic rather than a professional relationship, and he spends a few hours with Charley over dinner and drinks reminiscing their lives apart. Much of this film is spent making the viewer feel like a fly on the wall in George's life. At points in the story, there is dead silence, only the sounds of a real life and we are immersed in his world. Other times in flashbacks, the pain is so much, that the noise is deafening. Ford shows us this by muting the most upsetting parts of his life and leaving us just the images to be burned into our minds.
This is not your every day, mainstream kind of film. This is a film directed to a certain audience and open minded story lovers. Ford chose to shoot this very artistically and seems to blend black and white scenes seamlessly with color scenes and then completely drain the color in front of your eyes. This is a film that will immerse your soul and use all of your senses to encompass the nature of the story. The symbolism is very faint at times, yet so prominent. A gay man in the sixties is an invisible man, yet he chooses to live in a glass house. The world outside of the memories he holds with Jim are very sterile and bland. Every scene is very gray and dull and seems lifeless. Until these moments of clarity come in and almost instantly, there will be a burst of color that everyone will appreciate.
At times, the cinematography was so great, I thought I might be witnessing a perfume commercial in Italy, in the way that Chanel No. 5 would entice you to purchase their product to become beautiful and stunning, Ford entices you to become visually intrigued with the characters. The colors and close ups of the opening scenes are where this is felt the most. There is a dream sequence that I am speaking of, specifically, that seems like it puts you in a daze. Sometimes, the shots were so tight on a conversation, I felt uncomfortable. I wished for a break from the reality and wanted to pull back, but in the end, I'm glad Ford kept my eyes glued to the scenes. In this way, it truly feels like seeing through the eyes of another. The way he looks at someone else may not be how you would see them, but it's refreshing to have a risky director give it all to show that to us. -
huguespt21 November 2015I a giving this only a 6 but right up until the end it was a solid 9 to 10, the writer/screen play has deliberately left us all with no end to this great movie. Colin Firth's capabilities as an actor are proved yet again, amazing, along with other cast like "Goode" although realistically this is a one man movie where the plot and script revolve around "The Single Man's" past and present life, his encounters and his summing up of what is past and how to carry on in the future, that is not to say the supporting cats all are convincing in their roles but the movie revolves around the one main character. I would not recommend watching this movie if recently split up or depressed as whoever wrote/screen play did their research very, very well and brought up emotions in me long suppressed, the realty of this movie is heart and soul wrenching for those who know.
Great Movie but the ending left me wanting, can't tell you why because it would give it away, worth watching. Again Colin Firth to show such realism in this type of role is testament to his great acting ability, bravo. -
colinrgeorge6 April 2010"A Single Man" is your prototypical awards hound. It has rich atmosphere, assured performances, and not an ounce of originality. The debut of openly gay director Tom Ford, who previously made his name in fashion design, is a curiously impersonal film, a contented period drama about the loss of a partner, and a long hour and forty minutes. The storytelling is generally reserved and mature, but straightforward to a fault, packing shopworn scenarios and relationship dynamics that, while successful enough on their own merit, fail to elevate the material beyond each inherent cliché.
But one of the biggest reasons "A Single Man" never soars is that it suffers from some confusing and amateurish stylistic choices. Early in the film, for example, George Falconer (Colin Firth) peers out of his bathroom window. Through filter effects and desaturated imagery, we meet a family straight out of a sixties public service announcement. The actors address the camera, as though we might literally be watching some 8mm home movie. Surely these are George's memories. However, the scene, which spans multiple shots and angles, ends with a mother turning starkly to her side. We cut back to George, who ducks to avoid her gaze. Never mind that there's almost no way that she could literally have seen him through a fence, foliage, and into the dim interior of his bathroom, but the visual shorthand indicates we had moved in space and time. The perspectives from which we see of the family are totally incongruent with George's, but we're still led to believe that these two stylistically independent scenes are occurring simultaneously and within mere feet of one another.
And that series of misleading cuts is a minor gripe compared to a mistake made in the overall sequence of scenes. "A Single Man" begins with a dream in which George is beside Jim (Matthew Good), his dead lover, on a frozen river, a car overturned behind them. Jim is dead. The scene is undoubtedly the most visually striking in the film, but its placement completely undercuts the power of a following flashback, during which we witness George receiving the call informing him of Jim's demise. The scene might have been quite potent if we hadn't already been shown the body, but Ford relegates it to superfluous reiteration in showing it to us second. As a result, rather than carrying the emotional weight that it should, the scene feels languid, heavy-handed, and manipulatory.
Worse still is that Ford doesn't seem to understand his own protagonist. A contemplative discussion between George and a colleague is derailed by point-of-view shots of nearby shirtless male tennis players. The director uses close-ups and slow motion to add emphasis to each glowing Adonis, even though it doesn't makes sense for Firth's character. George is intellectual and collected, but harbors a deep sorrow, which is and should always be the root of the film. The loss of Jim weighs heavily on him, so to turn around and have him ogling others in a completely inappropriate context is beyond counter-productive; it's developmental sabotage. Had the same relationship been heterosexual, the close-ups thereby featuring women in sports bras glistening in motion, it would be clear our protagonist is an insincere pervert, which George clearly isn't. Ford employs a dangerous double standard in this imagery.
The bottom line is that "A Single Man" is a mediocre drama riding high on Oscar buzz in at best a middling awards season. The performances by Firth, Good, Nicholas Hoult, and Julianne Moore are opaque, but the content of their exchanges wants badly for substance. Their playbook passion undermines what could have been a deeply resonant human story, which is instead utterly neutered by pretension. There simply isn't one genuinely surprising or transgressive moment in the film, even in scenes that take a lighthearted approach to suicide and prostitution.
"A Single Man" may disguise itself well-enough through impressive art design as an awards- caliber film, but behind the slick veneer and A-list stars, this paint-by-numbers portrait of heartbreak is singularly underwhelming.