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A Single Man (2009)
"It takes time in the morning for me to become George, time to adjust to what is expected of George and how he is to behave. By the time I have dressed and put the final layer of polish on the now slightly stiff but quite perfect George I know fully what part I'm suppose to play."
Colin Firth plays George Falconer, a middle-aged English college professor living in America in the 1960s. To his neighbours, colleagues and students George is an ordinary, somewhat ineffectual single man. What they don't see is the depths beneath the surface - George is suffering from a broken heart, his partner of 16 years, Jim (Matthew Goode), having died recently in a car crash. The film follows George through one day in his life, a day he decides will be different as he makes preparations for his suicide. Throughout the day his interactions with other people, particularly his best friend Charley (Julianne Moore) and a curious student (Nicholas Hoult) test or strengthen his suicidal resolve.
Directed by fashion designer Tom Ford, A Single Man is, as you'd expect, stylish and stylised. But it's far from vapid, there are subtle emotional nuances and hidden depths within the film, just as there are behind George's facade. It looks exquisite, the 1960s rendered in convincing detail. The use of colour is very deliberate, in some scenes the colours grow warmer as George receives some kindness from another human being, almost glowing. It sounds gimmicky, perhaps, but it works perfectly. It's a beautiful film, in the way it looks and in the emotions it reveals. Colin Firth's performance is excellent, the anguish at the start of the film as he relives his discovery of his partner's death is quite heartbreaking. The flashbacks to George and Jim when Jim was alive are warm and convincing. The supporting performances from Juliane Moore and Nicholas Hoult are also very good, their characters ambiguous in their intentions and seeming very real. The music, too, deserves a mention, a beautiful score.
It's not a fast-paced film and it might frustrate some, at time it seems to drift, but that you don't know quite what will happen isn't really a bad thing. The ending, which I won't spoil, I wasn't at first sure was quite right, was maybe a little too neat. There were maybe a couple of scenes which were awkwardly unsubtle in comparison to the rest of the film; the owl for one and the lecture George gives on fear of minorities for another.
This really is is an exquisite film, with genuine sadness, humour in the midst of tragedy, hope and beauty.
"If it's going to be a world with no time for sentiment, Grant, it's not a world that I want to live in."
"It takes time in the morning for me to become George, time to adjust to what is expected of George and how he is to behave. By the time I have dressed and put the final layer of polish on the now slightly stiff but quite perfect George I know fully what part I'm suppose to play."
Colin Firth plays George Falconer, a middle-aged English college professor living in America in the 1960s. To his neighbours, colleagues and students George is an ordinary, somewhat ineffectual single man. What they don't see is the depths beneath the surface - George is suffering from a broken heart, his partner of 16 years, Jim (Matthew Goode), having died recently in a car crash. The film follows George through one day in his life, a day he decides will be different as he makes preparations for his suicide. Throughout the day his interactions with other people, particularly his best friend Charley (Julianne Moore) and a curious student (Nicholas Hoult) test or strengthen his suicidal resolve.
Directed by fashion designer Tom Ford, A Single Man is, as you'd expect, stylish and stylised. But it's far from vapid, there are subtle emotional nuances and hidden depths within the film, just as there are behind George's facade. It looks exquisite, the 1960s rendered in convincing detail. The use of colour is very deliberate, in some scenes the colours grow warmer as George receives some kindness from another human being, almost glowing. It sounds gimmicky, perhaps, but it works perfectly. It's a beautiful film, in the way it looks and in the emotions it reveals. Colin Firth's performance is excellent, the anguish at the start of the film as he relives his discovery of his partner's death is quite heartbreaking. The flashbacks to George and Jim when Jim was alive are warm and convincing. The supporting performances from Juliane Moore and Nicholas Hoult are also very good, their characters ambiguous in their intentions and seeming very real. The music, too, deserves a mention, a beautiful score.
It's not a fast-paced film and it might frustrate some, at time it seems to drift, but that you don't know quite what will happen isn't really a bad thing. The ending, which I won't spoil, I wasn't at first sure was quite right, was maybe a little too neat. There were maybe a couple of scenes which were awkwardly unsubtle in comparison to the rest of the film; the owl for one and the lecture George gives on fear of minorities for another.
This really is is an exquisite film, with genuine sadness, humour in the midst of tragedy, hope and beauty.
"If it's going to be a world with no time for sentiment, Grant, it's not a world that I want to live in."