Eight months after his longtime partner was killed in a car accident, George Falconer (Colin Firth), an in-the-closet Englishman who teaches at a Los Angeles college, spends a Friday making preparations to take his own life.

CRITIQUE

This movie should have been a disaster, or at the very least a noble misfire. It’s based on a cold, dry, distanced slip of a novel, one that would seem impossible to translate into a workable screenplay, and it’s co-written/directed by a fashion designer who’s making his filmmaking debut. But Tom Ford made the right call in adapting Christopher Isherwood’s source material, and that was to use the book as a jumping-off point for his own take on the story. What Ford (with the help of co-writer David Scearce) crafted ends up being something of a refutation of the themes of the novel, but it’s far more involving and relatable than Isherwood’s text, and is all the better for it.

Given the subject matter, you’d think A Single Man would be a mopey, boring exercise in human misery, but it’s far from it. The arc of the plot prevents this from occurring, and there’s more than a little black humor to lighten the mood somewhat (even one of George’s suicide attempts, thanks to some last-minute improvisations, is made sardonically humorous); but it’s the filmmaking and Firth’s performance that really make the movie so compelling.

Ford brings a beautiful eye to the movie, imbuing it with a style that suits the material perfectly. Within its overarching tone, the movie has several sub-tones, scenes that at first glance might seem incongruous in mood but actually serve to complement and/or contrast the overall mood, and Ford gives them a distinct emotional and visual atmosphere (often bathing them in a dominant color to the point the visuals become more or less monochromatic). It’s a deliberate, measured approach, but it never comes off as self-conscious or flashy.

Further, aside from a few shots that fall flat in their intent (the sort of shots that look to be a way of translating a literary device that isn’t translatable), Ford’s storytelling skills are a match for his stylistic ones. They’re often deceptively simple (making the in-your-face missteps that much more noticeable), using small moments to build a quietly (or not-so-quietly) moving whole. This is epitomized by the sequence in which George gets his affairs in order, ensuring that there will be no loose ends for the executor of his estate; it’s only after you’ve watched him methodically arranging a series of documents, notes, and keys that you realize the enormity of what you’ve witnessed.

Firth has never been better than he is here. George is masked for two-thirds of the movie, quiet and reserved, revealing nothing of what’s underneath. The rest of the time he’s somewhere between completely guarded and completely naked, which sounds odd but is actually what’s conveyed and somehow seems completely natural. And while portraying the different sides of George as completely different characters would have the easy way out, Firth makes him a complex, conflicted, devastated whole. It’s an amazing performance, perfect in and of itself and perfect for the story Ford is telling.

Two things mar A Single Man. One is a scene involving a Spanish hustler George encounters outside a liquor store; the scene is pointless in every definition of the word. The second is Nicholas Hoult (you may remember him from About a Boy), who plays a student on one of George’s classes. Hoult’s performance is weak, especially when stacked up against Firth’s; the fact that almost all of Hoult’s work involves him sharing the frame with Firth only serves to underscore this.

THE VIDEO

The only flaw in the 2.40:1/1080p transfer--encoded with AVC onto a 25GB disc--is some excessive noise. The image has an intentionally heavy grain structure, and at times it can have a noisy appearance, and at times this noise is quite pronounced (reminiscent of something out of one of those half-baked MPEG-2 transfers from the early days of Blu-ray). Other than that, though, this is a very solid effort. The disparity between the cold grays and bright oranges that dominate alternating scenes is vividly delineated, the few scenes that offer a decidedly more natural look are afforded an excellent presentation, and the flashback scene that is presented in black and white is gorgeous.

THE AUDIO

There’s not a whole lot going on in the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, what with the movie’s audio being comprised largely of dialogue, but it sounds more than fine. A good deal of the dialogue is delivered at a hushed level, but it’s never obscured or unintelligible. There’s some mild atmosphere, but the only overt surround action is relegated to a couple of brief scenes, with the rears--and low end--kicking in to punctuate the short spurts of (relatively speaking) action. No other audio options are included; English and English SDH subtitles are available.

THE EXTRAS

The scant extras kick off with a commentary by Tom Ford, which is surprisingly good, offering an interesting, thorough discussion of the production and story.

The Making of A Single Man (16 minutes) is also surprisingly good, digging a bit deeper than your average making-of piece.

BD-Live connectivity will give you access to one of Sony’s movieIQ tracks.

FINAL THOUGHTS