Starring: Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, Nicholas Hoult, Matthew Goode
Directed by: Tom Ford
Certificate: 12A
Runtime: 101 mins
UK release date: 12 February 2010:
In a nutshell: Fashion designer turns director in actually blooming good shock.
Is there anyone in any vaguely creative profession who, actually, doesn't want to be a director? We've recently had artist Sam Taylor-Wood go behind the camera to bring us the alright-I-suppose Nowhere Boy. Now fashion designer / aftershave maker / menswear guru Tom Ford has a stab.
Logic suggests that Ford should have delivered a vacuous but pretty tale; 101 minutes of wonderfully composed imagery and designer gear. Given the choice of period (1962) and a group of leading men that appear to have been chosen more for how good they'll look in sharp period suits than any acting ability, that early impression seemed well founded. In actual fact, while there are a few early moments when this tale of love, loss and ageing feels like an arty perfume commercial ("Depression... by Calvin Klein") as the story unfolds, Ford proves himself a very talented filmmaker indeed.
Set in Los Angeles against the vague background of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the story focuses on George Falconer (Firth), a British college professor attempting to come to terms with the death of Jim (Goode), his partner of 16 years. As the story follows George through one day, various flashbacks build a portrait of a man who's lost all meaning in his life. Indeed, unable to see beyond his grief, this particular day is to be George's last as he's fastidiously preparing the neatest suicide in history.
Depressing? Actually,no. Through the flashbacks, George is revealed as a tender soul, not the repressed bundle of emotions he's become, while the events of the day - including encounters with his best friend Charley (Moore) and a young student (Hoult) - hint that time is, indeed, a healer, all of which just makes the outcome even more poignant.
Firth has never been better. Some will see that as damning him
with faint praise, but that's a little cruel these days. Genova,
for example, saw a similar understated class although not to this
level. The true revelation though is Goode, who's been treading
water as assorted bits of male posh tottie for a few films and was
gloriously miscast in Watchmen. He's so good in A Single Man that
even his imminent appearance in execrable "Oirish" rom -com Leap
Year won't harm his career. Hoult too surprises, although
Julianne Moore - but of course! - effortlessly eclipses everyone as
the ageing beauty considering her own future.
All in all, A Single Man is a beautiful, poignant, old-fashioned
drama and very, very good indeed.
