The debut film from fashion designer Tom Ford is the cinematic equivalent of an actress with excessive plastic surgery. A Single Man may look perfect, but scratching the surface just a little and I found that the film’s style is the result of too much preening, polishing and enhancing. Ford’s film is an addict for prettiness and in the process resembles an excessively over-designed photo shoot rather than a film.
Colin Firth (Bridget Jones’ Diary, Genova) stars as George, a man still in mourning after the death of his long-time lover, Matthew Goode (Watchmen, Match Point). He lives in Los Angeles, teaches literature at a university and spends his evenings with a boozy neighbour, Julianne Moore (Boogie Nights, Magnolia), all the while being chased by a young student, Nicholas Hoult (About a Boy), who just may share George’s sexual longings. As the film navigates one day in George’s life, the audience is subjected to beauty, style and sophistication amid this tale of a grieving man.
I can’t stress enough how good Firth is here. Rightfully nominated for an Academy Award, Firth portrays such a desperately lonely and sad character without ever allowing George to lose the faux suburban happiness that he must project in the film’s 1960s setting. Homosexuality was obviously a far worse word then as it is today and Firth is immaculate at portraying this man who has spent so long pretending to be somebody he is not, that now, with his loss, he doesn’t know who he’s meant to be. Julianne Moore is a delight as the lush Charley, and Goode makes a sufficient fantasy object for George. Nicholas Hoult, however, is unfortunately terrible as a Ken doll wannabe – bland, dull and completely unbelievable as a potential love interest for George.
Many will respond to the aesthetics of A Single Man, but I was turned off. Cinematography by Eduard Grau is superficially superb. Close-ups of roses, intricately framed portraits of characters juxtaposed against 10-foot movie posters, and bodies floating in dark watery landscapes worthy of poetry fill the film’s running time, but they’re so obvious and repetitive that they lose their power as the film progresses. Abel Korzeniowski’s score is relentless, never leaving the speakers and never providing the film with any emotional resonance. It, like everything else, is there to make A Single Man appear classy.
By the film’s conclusion it is Colin Firth that remained in my mind. He is truly extraordinary and never more so than in a scene in which George receives a telephone call from his lover’s bigoted family. It aches the heart and mines feelings and emotions that no amount of perfectly coifed hair or impressively tailored dress shirts can replicate. Be impressed by the visuals on display, sure, but leave with Firth’s performance lingering in your mind.
A Single Man is screening nationally in Australia now.
Director: Tom Ford
Cast: Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, Matthew Goode, Nicholas Hoult, Ginnifer Goodwyn
Lovely writing Glenn, I agree-Colin Firth is fantastic.
While I did find problems with Hoult’s performance- I think he grew better during the film. He wasn’t originally cast in the part of Kenny, it was only when the first ‘Kenny’ (a more famous actor) didn’t turn up for the costume fitting, just before filming started, that Hoult was called in. The fact that he had next-to-no time to prepare for the role and learn the accent, gives him a little leeway.
I completely adored the detailed and over-beautified vision Ford brought to the story. The 60s as we hope and imagine they would have been, instead of (probably) the more boring reality of that time. I was completely transfixed.
I do agree that while this film is breathtakingly beautiful, it is sometimes a little too much beauty to bear. The thing is though, for something so stylised and polished, A Single Man has a lot of heart. It’s poignant. And while Colin Firth is the reason I was in tears already in the first ten minutes, I think Tom Ford did a great job with the script. There is a lot of love in the writing, and not overtly so. It’s as subtle and nuanced as Firth’s performance.
I would like to point out that I am almost never one of those people who criticises a movie for being “style over substance” since I think cinema is a visual medium and if you can’t be stylistic in cinema then when can you be? The problem here was that I felt the style was being used as a way of making the film appear more prestigious and classy than it actually is and that doing it at a more subdued way would have been better for the rather intimate story that is being told.
Worth a listen: http://www.alicetynan.com/2010/03/tom-ford-on-single-man.html