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!
222 Reviews
Good grief
Prismark1012 March 2014
Fashion 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.'
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.'
A Serious Man
sol-11 November 2017
Depression 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.
A Single Man In Venice
claudiaeilcinema16 September 2009
Of 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.
If you can't envision a bright future, trust the present's small moments to take you there...
ElMaruecan8220 November 2019
It 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...
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...
Colin Firth and Julianne Moore shine (as usual) in Tom Ford's brilliant directorial debut
Benedict_Cumberbatch21 January 2010
Tom 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.
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.
beautiful and slow
SnoopyStyle12 March 2015
It'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.
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.
The Power Of Love
lucymeyerrisi18 September 2009
A 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.
A Single Man: all style, no substance?
intern-8822 June 2012
Tom 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.
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.
Isherwood, Ford and Firth, not necessarily in that order
albertodr0714 September 2009
A 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.
Artistic Film turns out pretty good
willcundallreview16 July 2014
A 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.
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.
Colin's George and Adrian
andrewors15 November 2009
I'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.
Cinema doesn't get much better than this
larry-41124 September 2009
I 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.
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.
A genuinely pleasant surprise
cllrdr-121 November 2009
I 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."
Firth's Best Work Singled Out...
ClaytonDavis10 December 2009
First 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.
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.
A role tailor-made for Colin Firth
susannah-straughan-118 October 2009
With 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.
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.
Extremely Aware of Style
waterman_harry26 April 2015
A Single Man feels more like the prelude to a fashion show than an actual motion-picture, and whilst the film and plot are impeccably solid, it suffers from a certain aura of "style over substance" and not enough depth as it could've had. The debut film of fashion ingénue Tom Ford, A Single Man is both heart-achingly melancholy and richly probing into the life of a lonely homosexual widower in the sixties. Colin Firth is brilliant and brave in the role, whilst Julianne Moore and Nicholas Hoult offer beneficial support, however both are slightly over-shadowed by the pace and performance of Firth. Seemingly inspired by the work of Lars Von Trier, A Single Man is really quite beautiful but not one of the best films I have ever seen.
Colin Firth does it again
huguespt21 November 2015
I 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.
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.
Delivers more than just sex and a total different perspective of love and attraction
priyantha-bandara5 June 2011
The first interest of this movie for me was the appearance of Collin Firth. (As he won the 2010 Oscar best actor award for kings Speech I wanted to go back a little and check out some of his best was as per critics) Taking place in 60s the movie is about a gay English professor who is based on Los Angeles. As the story starts it has being a year after he lost his partner in a car accident. And at present he finds it difficult to cope up with is grief. Thus decides to suicide. While trying to finish up his last deeds before his departure he is approached by a young male student from his class. They find a connection.
A Single Man is not the typical romantic movie or the drama. It speaks of a social reality which many of us may try to avoid or turn the blind eye. And the exquisite quality in the dramatic movie making just cannot get better than this. And the plot delivers more than just sex and a total different perspective of love and attraction.
The movie is filled with brief cutaways, insightful dialogues and minor details which pack the screen with subtle beauty. The cinematography is elegant and creates a whole mood for the plot and its flow. The weight of loneliness and grief combined with the uncertainty totally engulfs the audience.
Collin Firth delivers a totally mesmerizing performance no doubt. Each scene and each line is dramatically perfect. His character speaks of emotion, survival, intelligent and ego.
If you taste is for dramas and dramas that makes a different then 'A Single Man' will not fail you.
A Single Man is not the typical romantic movie or the drama. It speaks of a social reality which many of us may try to avoid or turn the blind eye. And the exquisite quality in the dramatic movie making just cannot get better than this. And the plot delivers more than just sex and a total different perspective of love and attraction.
The movie is filled with brief cutaways, insightful dialogues and minor details which pack the screen with subtle beauty. The cinematography is elegant and creates a whole mood for the plot and its flow. The weight of loneliness and grief combined with the uncertainty totally engulfs the audience.
Collin Firth delivers a totally mesmerizing performance no doubt. Each scene and each line is dramatically perfect. His character speaks of emotion, survival, intelligent and ego.
If you taste is for dramas and dramas that makes a different then 'A Single Man' will not fail you.
Well-staged, but dry storytelling
MovieGuy10929 October 2011
A Single Man-**1/2-Watchable-Directed by: Tom Ford, Written by: Tom Ford, David Scearce, Christopher Isherwood (Novel). Starring: Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, Nicholas Hoult, Matthew Goode, Jon Kortajarena, Paulette Lamori, Ryan Simpkins, Ginnifer Goodwin, Lee Pace.
Isherwood's novel comes to life as a homosexual college professor (Firth) deals with the death of his life long partner and contemplating suicide as encounters with an alcoholic neighbor and a smitten student of his makes him rethink his decision.
A nicely crafted adaptation of Isherwood's novel takes us down a journey into the depths of deep sorrow aided by fine performances from Firth (in his most dynamic role yet) and Moore as his alcoholic neighbor and sharp, personal direction from fashion designer Ford.
The thing that weighs the film down is the fact that the storytelling is dry and boring with no new insights on the issues of grief except for the fact that it presents it through the eyes of a homosexual. It is hopelessly downbeat (though it may be necessary) and lacking a punchline.
It is hopelessly flawed, too flawed for its own good, but it presents two actors at the peak of their power and a new director who is sure to bring good things if he continues at this.
Isherwood's novel comes to life as a homosexual college professor (Firth) deals with the death of his life long partner and contemplating suicide as encounters with an alcoholic neighbor and a smitten student of his makes him rethink his decision.
A nicely crafted adaptation of Isherwood's novel takes us down a journey into the depths of deep sorrow aided by fine performances from Firth (in his most dynamic role yet) and Moore as his alcoholic neighbor and sharp, personal direction from fashion designer Ford.
The thing that weighs the film down is the fact that the storytelling is dry and boring with no new insights on the issues of grief except for the fact that it presents it through the eyes of a homosexual. It is hopelessly downbeat (though it may be necessary) and lacking a punchline.
It is hopelessly flawed, too flawed for its own good, but it presents two actors at the peak of their power and a new director who is sure to bring good things if he continues at this.
Pity Party
ferguson-631 January 2010
Greetings again from the darkness. World famous fashion designer Tom Ford dives head first into the movie world as writer (screenplay) and director of this one. As expected, the visual details are impeccable - from the "glass house" to the color scheme to the set design to the wardrobe and make-up. All that is missing is a character we care about.
Colin Firth has been nominated for many awards for his performance as George, the grieving professor, who in 1962 lost his partner of 16 years. Not even sure grieving is the correct word. Mostly, George has just given up on life. He gets up every morning and puts on his facade and begins the false-front that is his day.
We see, in flashback/daydream form, Mathew Goode as George's partner. They seemed to have been very happy together. We also see Julianne Moore as George's neighbor and long ago shot at a "real" relationship (her words). Ford has a nice touch showing Ms. Moore applying make-up as she puts on her best front for an evening with her grieving friend, George. It's all a bit pathetic actually.
Anyway, here it is 8 months after his lover's death and George has apparently decided to end his misery. We are locked in to his preparations, which are every bit as fastidious as his morning routine. My favorite parts were when George gets shocked out of his little world and has to interface, even briefly, with a colleague or neighbor's kid. The way he maintains is front is the key to what's ticking.
Overall, it is impossible to argue with the praise being heaped upon Mr. Firth for his fine performance, but this film is really pretty shallow and gives us nothing to really ponder. Maybe the Christopher Isherwood novel (source material) is better. Evidently the subject matter clicked with Mr. Ford ... too bad he wasn't successful in sharing his connection.
Colin Firth has been nominated for many awards for his performance as George, the grieving professor, who in 1962 lost his partner of 16 years. Not even sure grieving is the correct word. Mostly, George has just given up on life. He gets up every morning and puts on his facade and begins the false-front that is his day.
We see, in flashback/daydream form, Mathew Goode as George's partner. They seemed to have been very happy together. We also see Julianne Moore as George's neighbor and long ago shot at a "real" relationship (her words). Ford has a nice touch showing Ms. Moore applying make-up as she puts on her best front for an evening with her grieving friend, George. It's all a bit pathetic actually.
Anyway, here it is 8 months after his lover's death and George has apparently decided to end his misery. We are locked in to his preparations, which are every bit as fastidious as his morning routine. My favorite parts were when George gets shocked out of his little world and has to interface, even briefly, with a colleague or neighbor's kid. The way he maintains is front is the key to what's ticking.
Overall, it is impossible to argue with the praise being heaped upon Mr. Firth for his fine performance, but this film is really pretty shallow and gives us nothing to really ponder. Maybe the Christopher Isherwood novel (source material) is better. Evidently the subject matter clicked with Mr. Ford ... too bad he wasn't successful in sharing his connection.
like a Poem !!!
bochritas27 December 2009
I knew nothing about Tom Ford and of course about the movie before I saw "A Single Man". It just happened that I was on my own and wanted to see a movie. As I was alone I made a decision to see this movie. Just like that. And I have to say - Thank You Tom Ford. It made my day, my week, my month !!!! This movie like a poem, like a cool breeze after a hot and humid day. I came out of the movie theater full of senses of satisfaction and joy. It just felt right, good, light and joyful in the same time. Visually and mentally this movie left me speechless. The scene where George is lecturing about "different kind" of minorities was just more than perfect. I love movies which "compels" us viewers to get "something" - the main point of a movie and more by ourselves. And this movie one of them. So much to think about, so much to enjoy by watching and so much to discuss after it.
A Sexually Repressed Man Portrayed Skillfully by Firth and Directed Stylistically by Tom Ford
EUyeshima28 December 2009
There is an aching rawness at the core of this handsome 2009 drama which marks the feature film directorial and screen writing debut of renowned fashion designer Tom Ford. As one would expect, the film carries a pronounced aesthetic identity from someone who obviously has an eye for frame composition, visual flair and period detail. At the same time, Ford's preoccupation with the visual elements can get disruptive as he unnecessarily punctuates scenes with exaggerated changes in the film's color palate. Fortunately, what grounds the production is the sensitive work of the ever-dependable Colin Firth (BBC-TV's "Pride and Prejudice"), who plays George Falconer, a 52-year-old college professor struggling to cope after the death of his longtime partner. The actor skillfully brings the pained nuance out of a protective character caught in an emotional straitjacket due to the repressed year that was 1962 when the story takes place.
Based on the 1964 novel by Christopher Isherwood ("Goodbye to Berlin"), this is a somber tale of what George is planning to be his last day alive. Jim, his partner of sixteen years, died several months earlier in a car accident, and George just cannot move on with his life. Resigned to his fate, he spends the day going through the details of getting everything in order to ensure no one has to pick up after him. George cleans out his office, empties his safety deposit box, arranges his clothes neatly, and prepares to send farewell letters to his circle of friends. As he draws closer to what he expects to be his final moments, he becomes more immersed in memories of his past with Jim. However, two flesh-and-blood people figure prominently that day - his best friend Charley, an aging alcoholic socialite with whom he made a long-ago attempt at a fling, and a smitten student named Kenny, who appears to be grappling with his sexual identity through his obvious but inarticulate attraction to George.
Firth holds the film together with a genuinely thoughtful performance. You can sense the tortuous anxiety and resigned complacency that he brings to every scene, but none of it overwhelms the character or the viewer. Take note of the way Firth economically handles the heartbreaking scene when George finds out over the phone that Jim has died. Obviously crestfallen, George maintains his composure as he is told that he is not invited to the funeral. Stuck in a mid-century time warp of her own doing ("Far from Heaven", "Savage Grace"), Julianne Moore still manages to impress in her relatively brief scenes as Charley, bantering with George over gulps of gin in that recognizable balance between knowing indifference and unrequited romanticism. Nicholas Hoult ("About a Boy") projects Kenny's eagerness a bit too easily, but he manages to convey the right level of vulnerability otherwise. Matthew Goode ("Watchmen") plays Jim in idealized flashbacks, while Spanish model Jon Kortajarena smolders appropriately as a down-on-his-luck hustler George meets in a liquor store parking lot. Ginnifer Goodwin ("Big Love") and Lee Pace ("Pushing Daisies") show up in brief cameos. Spanish cinematographer Eduard Grau manages to capture all the varying, Almodóvar-level moods that Ford obviously wants to convey, even if the neophyte filmmaker sometimes goes overboard with his approach.
Based on the 1964 novel by Christopher Isherwood ("Goodbye to Berlin"), this is a somber tale of what George is planning to be his last day alive. Jim, his partner of sixteen years, died several months earlier in a car accident, and George just cannot move on with his life. Resigned to his fate, he spends the day going through the details of getting everything in order to ensure no one has to pick up after him. George cleans out his office, empties his safety deposit box, arranges his clothes neatly, and prepares to send farewell letters to his circle of friends. As he draws closer to what he expects to be his final moments, he becomes more immersed in memories of his past with Jim. However, two flesh-and-blood people figure prominently that day - his best friend Charley, an aging alcoholic socialite with whom he made a long-ago attempt at a fling, and a smitten student named Kenny, who appears to be grappling with his sexual identity through his obvious but inarticulate attraction to George.
Firth holds the film together with a genuinely thoughtful performance. You can sense the tortuous anxiety and resigned complacency that he brings to every scene, but none of it overwhelms the character or the viewer. Take note of the way Firth economically handles the heartbreaking scene when George finds out over the phone that Jim has died. Obviously crestfallen, George maintains his composure as he is told that he is not invited to the funeral. Stuck in a mid-century time warp of her own doing ("Far from Heaven", "Savage Grace"), Julianne Moore still manages to impress in her relatively brief scenes as Charley, bantering with George over gulps of gin in that recognizable balance between knowing indifference and unrequited romanticism. Nicholas Hoult ("About a Boy") projects Kenny's eagerness a bit too easily, but he manages to convey the right level of vulnerability otherwise. Matthew Goode ("Watchmen") plays Jim in idealized flashbacks, while Spanish model Jon Kortajarena smolders appropriately as a down-on-his-luck hustler George meets in a liquor store parking lot. Ginnifer Goodwin ("Big Love") and Lee Pace ("Pushing Daisies") show up in brief cameos. Spanish cinematographer Eduard Grau manages to capture all the varying, Almodóvar-level moods that Ford obviously wants to convey, even if the neophyte filmmaker sometimes goes overboard with his approach.
An overdose of sartorial elegance
loverboy_sg21 April 2010
Given that I have been watching a movie at the rate of one a week perhaps my expectations of this movie were too high. I left the cinema somewhat bemused and feeling that my expectations were not entirely met. I expected substance only to be confronted with mostly form. The latter was interesting and would appeal to many people but when stretched out over the entire length of the movie it tended to be a bit wearing.
Everything appeared prim and proper. The audience is given to believe that a university professor in the America of the 1960s is so well remunerated that he has the finest furnishings, the finest wardrobe (where sartorial elegance is constantly on display), and all the other good things that life can offer. This is what happens when there is too much of a stress on form and beauty -- it moves into the realm of make believe. Depending on one's point of view this either helps to shore-up a rather thin storyline or it makes its thinness even more apparent.
And where was the punchline? Perhaps it came in the abruptness of the ending.
Everything appeared prim and proper. The audience is given to believe that a university professor in the America of the 1960s is so well remunerated that he has the finest furnishings, the finest wardrobe (where sartorial elegance is constantly on display), and all the other good things that life can offer. This is what happens when there is too much of a stress on form and beauty -- it moves into the realm of make believe. Depending on one's point of view this either helps to shore-up a rather thin storyline or it makes its thinness even more apparent.
And where was the punchline? Perhaps it came in the abruptness of the ending.
Classiest and most stylish movie there ever was
BernhardD7 January 2020
I like to iron my business shirts and shine my shoes for a couple of hours every Sunday evening. Doing this I either need to have "A single man" (movie) in the background running, or at least the amazing soundtrack playing.
Tom Ford has always been amazing at whatever he does and i truly find him to be a incredible "artist" and creator. I was more than sceptical when hearing about him making a movie out of nowhere.
This movie is a work of art. It is like watching an opera or going to an art gallery, but without the boring parts. Every scene can be paused and one find oneself staring at an amazing image, almost too beautiful to grasp.
I love the details. I love how George brushes his black toe-cap Oxford shoes in the morning. I love he dresses in slow-motion in the morning to a classic symphony by the amazing Shigeru Umeyabashi, which creates the elegant and mysterious environment. But most of all. I absolute adore how Tom Ford uses colours to set an atmosphere to the scene. For example; George wants to dies, his life is grey and even the films seems grey, but on this last day of living he starts to see some beauty in the world. This could be the lipstick on his secretary or the young tennis-player playing a game in front of him, when all of a sudden the grey is replaced by the warmest of colours. He finally sees beauty and maybe somewhere appreciates his life.
Thank God for this movie.
Tom Ford has always been amazing at whatever he does and i truly find him to be a incredible "artist" and creator. I was more than sceptical when hearing about him making a movie out of nowhere.
This movie is a work of art. It is like watching an opera or going to an art gallery, but without the boring parts. Every scene can be paused and one find oneself staring at an amazing image, almost too beautiful to grasp.
I love the details. I love how George brushes his black toe-cap Oxford shoes in the morning. I love he dresses in slow-motion in the morning to a classic symphony by the amazing Shigeru Umeyabashi, which creates the elegant and mysterious environment. But most of all. I absolute adore how Tom Ford uses colours to set an atmosphere to the scene. For example; George wants to dies, his life is grey and even the films seems grey, but on this last day of living he starts to see some beauty in the world. This could be the lipstick on his secretary or the young tennis-player playing a game in front of him, when all of a sudden the grey is replaced by the warmest of colours. He finally sees beauty and maybe somewhere appreciates his life.
Thank God for this movie.
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