Saturday May 22

A SINGLE MAN

USA 2009, 99 minutes, 12A certificate
Directed by Tom Ford, Starring Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, Nicholas Hoult

Tom Ford was, until very recently, better known for his profile as a fashion designer, having turned around the fate of the Gucci fashion house. He can now add film director to his list of accomplishments following the success of A Single Man, his stunning debut feature based on Christopher Isherwood’s novel of the same name.

Colin Firth plays Professor George Falconer, an expat teaching English at a Californian university in the early 1960’s. George is impeccably turned out, polite, respected yet aloof. But his polished and restrained exterior is a carefully controlled facade, necessary to obscure a devastating grief that he cannot acknowledge. His lover of many happy years is dead, killed in a sudden car accident, but because of his homosexuality he is unable to publicly express his loss, prevented even from attendance at the funeral, and forced to bury his sadness in a fake life of careful ritual and maintenance of control. The film follows George over the course of one day at the end of semester, a day that may or may not be his last. His private moments of painful recollection are interspersed with his interactions with a handful of people, some who come close to scratching the surface: a handsome stranger who shares a cigarette; a charismatic and provocative student; and his old and trusted friend, lush divorcee and fellow Brit Charley, played with typical allure by Julianne Moore.

The film has many pleasures, not least the staggering loveliness of the visuals, each frame perfectly composed, George’s home a modernist masterpiece, all smooth red woods and walls of glass, an irony given what its occupant must strive to conceal. But foremost is Firth’s career best performance: reticent, stoic, self deprecating, with occasional flashes of acerbic wit, Firth gives us a heartbreaking and compassionate portrayal of George, his grief almost unbearably tangible: so much is conveyed with great subtlety and apparently effortless grace.  

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