Colin 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.
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.