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The sensitive direction of Tom Ford, an imaginative screenplay, and an Oscar-nominated performance from Colin Firth in the lead role are the primary selling points of a 2009 drama called A Single Man, a quietly powerful indictment on the effects of grief, how its grip can close us off to the point where we think we have no options, and how there can be options if we open are eyes to them.
Set in November of 1962, we are introduced to George Falconer (Firth), an English college professor who teaches in Los Angeles, who is still stinging from the death of his lover (Matthew Goode) after a year and has decided that, after a farewell dinner with his best friend Charley (Julianne Moore), that he is going to commit suicide, despite attention from a stunning male hustler named Carlos (Jon Kortajarena) and the obvious advances of one of his students named Kenny (Nicholas Hoult).
Ford has constructed a lovely story here, based on a novel by Christopher Isherwood, that is a powerful character study about a man who has to hide who he really is because it is the 1960's when such things weren't discussed and deal with the loss of a man he will always love and whose face he sees everywhere. George's grief is further complicated by Charley. who he once was involved with, who has never gotten over him and was certain that his homosexuality was just a "phase" and not a real relationship. Even Kenny admits that he first approaches George because he's worried about him...I love the way Kenny makes his feelings about George clear without ever coming out and actually saying it and I think that's because Kenny doesn't know how to say what he's feeling.
This film is rich with romantic images, the relationship between George and his lover, recalled in flashback , is lovely to watch and Firth realistically brings this tortured character to fruition and Nicholas Hoult, of the pouty lips and big green eyes, is wonderful as Kenny. Julianne Moore is superb, as always, doing a perfect British accent, as the woman thinking that the death of George's lover is her passport back into George's life.
The film is rich with period detail, the art direction/set direction is effective and the lush musical score is on the money. Despite an unsettling climax, still a riveting film experience for the discriminating film goer.
The sensitive direction of Tom Ford, an imaginative screenplay, and an Oscar-nominated performance from Colin Firth in the lead role are the primary selling points of a 2009 drama called A Single Man, a quietly powerful indictment on the effects of grief, how its grip can close us off to the point where we think we have no options, and how there can be options if we open are eyes to them.
Set in November of 1962, we are introduced to George Falconer (Firth), an English college professor who teaches in Los Angeles, who is still stinging from the death of his lover (Matthew Goode) after a year and has decided that, after a farewell dinner with his best friend Charley (Julianne Moore), that he is going to commit suicide, despite attention from a stunning male hustler named Carlos (Jon Kortajarena) and the obvious advances of one of his students named Kenny (Nicholas Hoult).
Ford has constructed a lovely story here, based on a novel by Christopher Isherwood, that is a powerful character study about a man who has to hide who he really is because it is the 1960's when such things weren't discussed and deal with the loss of a man he will always love and whose face he sees everywhere. George's grief is further complicated by Charley. who he once was involved with, who has never gotten over him and was certain that his homosexuality was just a "phase" and not a real relationship. Even Kenny admits that he first approaches George because he's worried about him...I love the way Kenny makes his feelings about George clear without ever coming out and actually saying it and I think that's because Kenny doesn't know how to say what he's feeling.
This film is rich with romantic images, the relationship between George and his lover, recalled in flashback , is lovely to watch and Firth realistically brings this tortured character to fruition and Nicholas Hoult, of the pouty lips and big green eyes, is wonderful as Kenny. Julianne Moore is superb, as always, doing a perfect British accent, as the woman thinking that the death of George's lover is her passport back into George's life.
The film is rich with period detail, the art direction/set direction is effective and the lush musical score is on the money. Despite an unsettling climax, still a riveting film experience for the discriminating film goer.