Customer Reviews

A Single Man [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(81)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

This film took me by surprise. Being that this was Tom Ford's directorial debut, I didn't know what sort of expectations, if any, I should have had. That speculation was a profound waste of time. I like a great many movies but I love only a handful and this one falls squarely in the center of the latter category. I found it a profoundly lyrical and human exploration of the weight of loss, of the way we try to continue with a life that is now seemingly foreign because it is so jarringly incomplete; a study in reflective motion - the stranger in the mirror that shadows us. We witness how from the moment he wakes, George struggles to just exist in the most normal sense rather than live in the more extraordinary one. As he states early in the film "You see, my heart has been broken." However, we not only see it, we come to feel it. We are wholly sympathetic to him because, in many ways, he's all of us. Just like his loss, George's pain is universal and through that hole in his soul, we enter and come to know him. Colin Firth's performance is superb; a walking testament to weary resignation and automatic reflex. He operates by rote and instinct, struggling to reach the end of every minute of his day. The clocks in his world move ever so slowly and the monotone tick of the seconds hand reminds him just how much more of the day still looms darkly before him. Firth walks that very tricky tightrope with a character that can very easily become the embodiment of all that is maudlin while simultaneously failing to elicit even an ounce of compassion from the viewer. Caricature is one misstep away but he doesn't come anywhere near that pitfall. George is a sad creature, no doubt, but he's not pathetic; a dignified streak runs prominently through him. To those outside his reality, he's the same George they've always known and he dutifully embraces the charade. As his longtime friend, Charlotte (Charley), Julianne Moore delivers with her customary and unerring brilliance. Donning a first rate English accent and a sense of frustration for her ill-conceived affection for George, she struggles alongside her friend to hold on to a world that is slowly leaving her behind. Nicholas Hoult is a revelation as Kenny Potter, George's student; a young man whose own sense of isolation draws him to George and his detached and well thought out approach to life and human interaction. In him he finds a kindred spirit. As Jim, George's partner of 16 years whom we get to know almost exclusively through flashbacks, Matthew Goode offers an honest portrayal of someone whose capacity to love and be loved forever transfigured those around him. Now let us move onto Tom Ford. Where has this man been hiding all these years? He was born to direct. His unfailing attention to detail, his ability to frame a scene is fluid and innate. People go to film school for years for one third of what obviously comes naturally to him. From the first scene to the last, the film pulsates with a lyrical quality that renders it a true work of art and not just another movie. He has certainly set the bar very high for himself. Directorial debuts such as these, are rare indeed. We're not talking Redford in Ordinary People because for more than 20 years he stood in front of the camera. Ford's screenplay adapted from a source that many considered unfilmable is yet one more achievement. The art direction is another major player in the film and it is spectacular, indeed. Both interiors and exteriors brim with authenticity and impeccable taste. The same is true of the music score by Abel Korzeniowski and Shigeru Umebayashi. Though somewhat minimalist in nature it was far warmer and more melodic with just the right amount of melancholy underpinnings. Why this film wasn't showered with Oscar nominations I'll never understand because it more than deserves them. To say that I loved it, is an understatement. A Single Man is, without question, a true work of art.

Colin Firth is superb in this film about a man dealing with loss. Firth does an excellent job of subtle character development as he plays a man overcome with grief to the point that he has become numb. But it is more than this for it is about the forces that pull us into death to join those that have gone before us and the beautiful forces of life that pull us toward life, to keep going for anther day to enjoy the gift of existence. It is the story of an English professor in a community college in the 1960s who is trying to get through another day as his memory takes him back to conversations and intimacy with his deceased lover, Jim. Jim, played by Matthew Goode, was his partner for many years, and now, left alone, the title "A Single Man" has multiple meanings. George Falconer is still connected to the world, as evidenced by his friendship with Charley, an old girlfriend, who has become a confidant. Julianne Moore is great in this role. The character of George Falconer may be fearful of isolation and a solitary existence but he is also resistant to the attractions of the world, fully evident in the character of Kenny, a beautiful sensitive young student from one of his classes. Nicholas Hoult plays Kenny and it is not just Kenny's beauty that retains George's interest but the desire on the part of Kenny for insightful and meaningful interactions with a like minded soul. In fact the film shows George propositioned by a beautiful and yet vulnerable male hustler outside a liquor store. Worldly beauty doesn't pull him back from the brink. It is Kenny's more nuanced and meaningful overtures that act as a lifeline to a drowning man. This is a film for adults. Colin Firth's portrayal of George is one of loss, and disorienting grief, covered over with rituals of control and order. He has the exceptional ability to be coolly handsome while revealing a boiling undercurrent just below his surface. Nicholas Hoult is also excellent, first appearing as an appealing young man in the classroom, but revealing more depth and desire of meaningful interaction with each scene. Julianne Moore, playing an isolated divorcee, plays one of those wonderful friends who is supportive and kind and still may have an unrevealed agenda. She plays the part well. The film is based on Christopher Isherwood's novel of the same name, but be aware that changes have been made, and the film should be judged on its own merits since it has significantly adapted parts of the novel, including the ending. Visually, the film is stunning, for it captures the best sensibilities of late 1950's modernism and design.

In the run-up to the 2010 Oscars, dominated by well-made but overhyped mainstream Hollywood hopefuls (Up In The Air, Avatar, The Hurt Locker) and Hollywood wannabes (A Prophet), there's one film that lives up to the hype, and then some. Even now though, the press and critics bafflingly seem to be reining-in the enthusiasm, wondering whether A Single Man has any real substance behind fashion-designer-turned-filmmaker Tom Ford's superficial stylizations or whether there is any real depth behind Colin Firth's performance. There most certainly is.

Set in LA in 1962, an aging English professor, finding it impossible to publicly grieve the death of his homosexual partner who has just died in a car crash, sets about arranging for his own suicide. There certainly seems to be little more to the film than George's painful reminiscences of what has been lost mixed with chance encounters in the present day - minor encounters mostly, none of them apparently significant enough to deter him from the direction he is determined to take - but each of the little episodes that make up the film and the manner in which they are filmed, cumulatively add up to a realistic and meaningful consideration of the experience of loving, living and dying.

Tom Ford's direction and visual language - the period detail, the coloration, the emphasis on mood and facial expression over expositional dialogue - would seem to owe much to Wong Kar-wai - an impression enforced by the use of Shigeru Umebayashi on the soundtrack - but the director nonetheless finds in it a personal means to best express the complexity of emotions that the situation gives rise to. Colin Firth is a revelation in this respect, his usual impassive demeanour appropriate for the reserved nature of his character, but there's a brave openness about his performance that we've not seen before that allows George's vulnerability to break through. This may very well be the film of the year - it's certainly one of the most beautiful.

This is the first film since "I've Loved You So Long" that I went to bed thinking about, woke up thinking about and am still thinking about.

It's a "day in the life" story set in the early '60s about a middle aged English professor who has lost his longtime lover in a car crash, sees nothing in his future and intends this day to be his last. As his otherwise everyday-day goes on, it attains increasing vibrancy as it becomes more and more clear that everything and everyone he sees this day he'll never see again and that only he and we know that.

I rented it because I'm a big fan of Firth, Moore & Goode, all of whom were just superb, as was Nicholas Hoult, the now nearly grown up kid from "About a Boy." But I fell in love with it for Ford's marvelous screen adaptation and direction of this Christopher Isherwood story. It could easily have turned into one of those films I re-rent every couple of years or so, but I'm buying a copy instead, in large measure because of this Tom Ford comment on the "making of" extra: He said "If I can get the audience to leave the theater and think 'Wow! I need to pay more attention to my day, because this is all I get!' then I think the film will have meant something." I've decided that what that means for me is that I need Ford's movie available to snap me back to attention whenever needed. Which I suspect will be far too often.

George is a single man in several ways. He is not married, he is gay, and his partner of many years has recently died. "A Single Man" is also a reference to George's position, as he perceives it, vis a vis the rest of the world. Since his partner's death, George is detached, aloof. He slides through life without engaging in it, and finds himself enveloped in a private cocoon of sorrow and despair. The film follows George through one very important day in his life: the day on which he decides whether or not to die. It's a lot like "Mrs. Dalloway" and the its adaption "The Hours" in that respect. The film is dreamlike, disjointed with sudden flashbacks, yet gentle in its treatment of what is doubtless a damaged psyche. George is often indifferent to his surroundings, but occasionally has moments of intense clarity. Indulgently slow closeups of utterly mundane moments showcase details so delicious they practically leap off the screen: a young girl's blue patterned dress, a dog's muzzle caressing George's porous cheek, the smile of a pretty young receptionist. In these moments George seems to recapture what was once a meaningful life, or perhaps he is simply remembering the life he once had. This nostalgia is manifested in his relationship with his longtime friend Charley (Moore), with whom he shares such a tangled past that neither can seem to escape it. Firth and Moore give outstanding performances, and Matthew Goode and Nicholas Hoult have strong supporting roles. The movie is about the value of life, a life, the life of a man struggling to find meaning in loss, as we all do. Shelf your expectations before viewing this one. Despite the dark theme of this movie, after seeing it I felt much more alive.

The elegance of Tom Ford's film has stayed with me for days. Based on the Christopher Isherwood novel of the same name, the picture studies a day in the life of George Falconer, a gay college professor whose partner has recently died in an accident. As we might expect from Ford, the renowned fashion designer, it proves a work of art in every respect, with close due paid to subtlety and nuance--right down to the glowing tip of its pink cigarettes. And the sets, costumes, and musical score are, of course, divine.

Cinematographer Eduard Grau has lensed the film with a palette ranging from highly saturated color to soft, brown-filtered grain. The action would seem to happen in pastel. Ford's people are so very pretty, from Colin Firth's impeccably groomed professor, to Nicholas Hoult's wide-eyed schoolboy, to Julianne Moore's gin-soaked fading flower. In stark contrast to the film's grief-infused theme, each surface, everywhere we rest our eyes, is lovely, pointing toward one of Isherwood's meditations: Sometimes in great pain lies great beauty. As George discovers, grief can slow the world's pace, offering appreciation of the many details we may have otherwise missed: the sensual grace of a mouth, the buoyant spirit of an all-too-honest child, the aching heart of a lonely young man yearning for connection.

Having lived the typical life of a gay professional man in midcentury America, George has been walled behind a web of facades. His upper-class British background has wrought a template of strictures. He has successfully hidden a 16-year relationship with a much-younger man from all but his closest friends and family. And in his obsessive devotion to the surface details of his life, he appears to be even a mystery to himself. The film is set during the Cuban missile crisis of October 1962, when fear and paranoia have spiked to epic levels, and even in Los Angeles, a gay professor at a small college can be given no quarter. But curiously enough, he and his partner have built an elegant glass house in Santa Monica, bringing the light of day into their quiet existence and allowing those who would look to glimpse the truth.

This is just one of many metaphors Isherwood puts forth in his deceptively simple story. Himself a gay man, he seems to have clearly understood and reckoned with the apparent necessity for walls in a hostile environment, and the deep sensitivity they sequester.

Ford has wisely selected his cast, all of whom turn in outstanding performances. Each is pitch-perfect and skillfully directed by the fashion designer, who solely funded this project after years with Yves St.-Laurent and Gucci. Foremost is Colin Firth, who's received an Oscar nod for his adept rendering of the complex character behind the horn-rims. And young actor Nicholas Hoult positively glows in his white mohair sweater and crème-colored jeans, the epitome of twink naivete.

A film littered with such seductive trappings is a pleasure to watch. But observing what lies beneath as it bubbles to the surface like a lily bursting through blacktop is the real joy of this subtle masterpiece. [...]

Tom Ford has taken what is arguably a simple story, moved it into a modern connotation while fully realizing its period visually. Mr Isherwood's novelette leaves so many holes that Mr Ford so wonderfully fills. One is like the events took place, and the other is the fairy tale (Grim's) of those events, or how we wish they would have happened given that situation (given our modern concept of love, especially between two men). In the book it is George who decides not to go and see Jim's family in Ohio (not the Colorado family's decision George not go as in the movie); which I somehow find truer to a 40 year old "English" homosexual in the early 1960's. Its is George that gives up Jim's animals ( a nod to Isherwood's Heinz, and their life in Portugal, whom he lost to Nazi Germany. Though Heinz didn't die actually, he did get sucked into the war machine and was lost to Christopher) unlike the dog's mentioned in Ford's film. However, it is these moments ... the phone call between George and the family, the loss of the dogs... George's comment to Charley ( Moore) about his love being more real than anything she has ever known.. that take the film to a new level about gay men, and gay men in love, that, had Isherwood's George been in a fuller understanding of himself in 1962, he would have been likely to feel, how he should have reacted to the loss of Jim. There is a scene in the movie in a parking lot where George runs into a dog, the same breed as his own lost pair in Jim's accident, that could have been so cheesy and sentimental, and yet Ford's understanding of complex relationships between hope, loss, need, connection, is so wonderfully prefect, and well organized that instead of schlock one is moved. Anyone gay or straight, who has lost, ended without contact, removed oneself from a relationship in a finial complete manor before they were ready, when it is a shock... understands these moments Ford so perfectly organizes. The use of color, the use of camera, the ticking clocks, all of these weave a tapestry of emotion evoking the senses... And then add to it Ford's innate understanding of the period visually, make for a wonderful, Beautiful, moving tale of love, loss, connection, Isolation, and the finite reality of life.

"A Single Man" is an all-around beautiful film. It is visually beautiful, using its lighting and color palettes to their full potential to dazzling effect. The score, a slow, meditative, haunting orchestral arrangement by Abel Korzeniowski is also beautiful, and flows seamlessly with the cinematographic offerings of the film. But the true beauty in "A Single Man" lies in its characters, who are flawed and broken and striving to be human in this cold, cruel world in which we live.

The film is mostly the story of one character, the titular single man, George, played flawlessly by Colin Firth. George is a college professor in California in the 1960s. George is gay in a time when being so is not particularly acceptable. George had a partner, Jim, who was the love and light of his life, until he perished in a car accident, and now George has nothing. George is a broken, hollow, empty man who is simply going through the motions.

The film is almost a stream of consciousness, following George as he goes about a day in his life. They day is not unusually eventful: George teaches a lecture, goes to the bank, has dinner with an old friend. And yet the film revels in every minute of this man's life, observing him with a careful, watchful, nonjudgmental eye. The film focuses on George's interactions with everyone around him, and capture beautifully the distance and isolation George experiences from everyone else in the world. George is single not only in relationship status, but he feels ultimately and tragically alone, unable to form connections with anyone around him. The story in the film may seem light to some, and in many ways that is the point: this is an ordinary day in the life of an ordinary man. George is not some action hero, and this isn't an action-packed day from a season of "24." The film's beauty is in its subtlety and nuance, and the way Ford's camera patiently follows its characters in rapture, although nothing earth-shattering is happening, the focus of the film is on the little interactions that make up the human experience.

The theme of homosexuality is handled very well here: this is not a movie that has any sort of political agenda, nor should it ostracize viewers of any sexual persuasion. The film is about raw human emotion, about love and loss and the grief every human being feels when he or she has lost someone important. The emotions George feels, the experiences he has are all part of a greater universal, the Human Experience. In perhaps the best crafted scene in the film, George goes swimming with another character, and in that silent, wordless moment as they're tossed about by the violent waves, there seems to be a greater level of understanding than there is between anyone in all the rest of the film, no matter how many words are exchanged. Perhaps that is the great unifier: the thing we have in common is that we are each of us alone in our search for understanding, and that the moments of human connection that come and go are what we live for. George's individual concerns, therefore, are not his alone, but shared by all of humanity. George is, after all, but a single man.

A Single Man is much like an art house film. It was released last year and written and directed by designer, and former Gucci creative director, Tom Ford. This is a very quiet and moving film that shows isolation, loneliness and loss of love. A Single Man takes place in November 1962, and is about an English professor who, after the sudden, shocking death of his partner and lover, goes about his typical day in Los Angeles. Colin Firth, who plays Professor George Falconer, shines in this role, and after seeing him in many movies, I must say this is his best acting to date. And apparently most of the movie industry agreed. For this role, Colin was nominated for his first Oscar in the Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role, as well as The Golden Globes and went on to win Best Actor for the BAFTAS, London Critics Circle Film among many others. Also, A Single Man was nominated for outstanding film at the GLAAD Media Awards.

Tom Ford has excelled as a first time movie director with A Single Man. Not only relying on the masterful acting of Colin Firth, and Julianne Moore, as Charley, a middle-aged, rich drunken divorcee, but Tom sets up a scene, much like Orson Welles would do, where the audience must soak up every single frame to get the full effect of the range of emotions from his actors. Not many directors will allow many close ups and keep the camera still for almost a minute, where we just watch the actor's face. But Tom has done this here. Just by watching the range of emotions on Colin Firth's face as he remembers his dead lover of over twenty years, you feel such a connection to this man, and the harsh realities one must experience when that one person they love beyond all else is no longer in their lives.

George is not only depressed, but empty inside. His will to live has vanished. The reason is because one snowy night, eight months ago, his one true love, Jim (played by Matthew Goode), was in a car accident. Jim died along with his and George's two beloved dogs. George found this out from a phone call from a member of Jim's family. George was not invited to the funeral, nor was he called right away when the accident happened. We are led to believe that Jim's family possibly didn't agree with Jim's lifestyle and his relationship with George. After George ends the phone call, he sits there is shock, then in grief and finally breaks down. The amazing range of emotion on George's face, thanks to the acting skill of Colin is superb, and you feel his heartbreak alongside him.

George can't get passed Jim's death, and because of that, he decides on a specific course of action one sunny day that will end with a possible shocking outcome when all is said and done. Every action and thought of George's revolves around what he used to have with Jim. We see through flashbacks how he and Jim met, their days together how they would just sit on the couch and read or chat, while Jim smiles in his playful manner, coaxing a loving response from George.

But although George feels he has nothing left to live for, on this very special day, he begins to notice that perhaps his life is not all that bad. He has a wonderful, loving friend with Charley, who he has known more than half his life. Even one of his students, Kenny (played by Nicholas Hoult) sees something special in George, and is more than willing to help George heal. It's all up to George to decide what his next step is, and if he's willing not to give up and embrace those around him who can give him as much love and happiness he once had with Jim.

The title- A Single Man is perfect in describing who George is. For a very long time, George wasn't single. He was connected to another person, where the two halves of their soul became one entity. George and Jim were each other's soul mates in every sense. Now George must find his identity again. The start of the film shows George barely going through the daily motions, and as the story progresses, he begins to come back to life. This is shown perfectly with color. When George is depressed or reliving his pain, everything is muted and dull. But when he smiles or enjoys something as simple as a conversation, everything around him becomes brighter with color in very much the literal sense.

Not many actors can play a character like George. A Single Man is more of a character piece, an analysis, a one man show into a person's emotional psyche. Colin Firth plays George to near perfection. His loyalty and dedication to his dead lover, even when he has the opportunity to enjoy physical relations with other men, is moving. He won't give into his need for release because of his dedication to Jim.

A Single Man is very much a romance and shows how love can free a person. We see this between George and Charley, whose long lasting friendship is one we all wish we could have with another person. George's student, Kenny is full of innocence and has a near puppy like crush on George that never crosses an uncomfortable line. And then finally there is Jim, the ghost from George's past that he must let go so he can move on. And when George finally decides to let Jim go, it is very heartbreaking, as well as peaceful.

This is one movie that is very visually stunning, with awe inspiring acting. If you have a chance, please do view A Single Man. It's a true piece of art from a new visionary and with actors, such as Colin Firth and Julianne Moore, who are two of the best movie actors of this century.

Katiebabs

So much has been written of A Single Man.

The film is brilliant, as a directorial debut for Tom Ford and a star acting vehicle for Colin Firth.

Tom Ford found his niche for A Single Man can almost qualify for a non-mainstream art house movie with its splendid shots, flashbacks and occasionally black-and-white retellings. Notwithstanding the fact that there were several model-quality actors in a few scenes, the casting was impeccable, Colin Firth as the emotionally-wrecked George Falconer putting on a false front living his day mourning for his dead lover; a vulnerable and empty Julianne Moore as Charly and Nicholas Hoult as a seemingly precocious youth tempting his professor.

The screen adaptation was well-written. The book, as I have read it, was ponderous at times. It would have been a great challenge to move it to screen since much of the film relied on the strength of its cast and in this case, the marriage of screenplay and acting prowess was sweet. The film depended mostly on Colin Firth, his facial expressions, sometimes almost stoic, still betrayed a sense of neediness, something his young student picked up almost readily. His long-time best pal, once ex-lover, Charly, is a middle-aged woman who's bent on refusing to pick up the pieces of a broken marriage and a grown-up child, choosing to wallow in self-pity while still somewhat pining for the lost love she had with George. In that, Julianne Moore's screen time brings out the best performance in Firth. For that, Julianne Moore is no longer acting. She just is Charly (see her in a 10-min turn in The Secret Life of Pippa Lee). And I will certainly say that she is as good as my other favourite, Meryl Streep.

The dialog is memorable and gripping. Jim said while on the couch chilling with George, "If I die now, I'd be happy." How many of us think of such simple pleasures in life, just being next to the person we love? I think.

The film is ultimately all about living a life of love, loss and hope.

"The few times in my life I've had moments of absolute clarity, when for a few brief seconds the silence drowns out the noise and I can feel rather than think, and things seem so sharp and the world seems so fresh. I can never make these moments last. I cling to them, but like everything, they fade. I have lived my life on these moments. They pull me back to the present, and I realize that everything is exactly the way it was meant to be. "