Moving A Single Man a Universal Truth
George Falconer (Colin Firth) is alone. A 52 year old British national teaching collegiate English in Los Angeles, he’s absolutely unconcerned about the missile crisis going on in Cuba or by the thought that the Cold War between the United States and Russia could lead to nuclear Armageddon. He doesn’t particular care that his best friend and fellow ex-patriot Charley (Julianne Moore) is having problems of her own, and while he wishes her the best his current plans for the future don’t exactly have her best interests at heart.
Colin Firth and Julliane Moore in Weinstein Company's A Single Man
No, as far as George is concerned today seems like a perfect one to say goodbye to this world. He’ll go to class and try to get through to his students one more time, he’ll make nice with kind-hearted neighbor Mrs. Strunk (Ginnifer Goodwin) and her young children, he’ll chat up a pretty blonde woman just to say hello to her dog and share a cigarette with a sexy hunk just because it will bring a smile to his face. He’ll even spend one more night with Charley reminiscing about their youth, hoping that just by doing so she’ll be able to get on with her life even if he’s no longer in it.
Because, even with all these connections and friendships, George is alone, and the only way to remedy that is to join his beloved late partner Jim (Matthew Goode) in a great beyond he’s finally prepared to send himself to.
Based on the acclaimed novel by Christopher Isherwood (the acclaimed writer behind Cabaret), Tom Ford’s visually striking and beautifully acted A Single Man is easily one of the year’s most striking debuts. The noted fashion designer transformed himself into writer and director for this particular project, and to say he rose to the occasion with one of the more profound and emotionally fulfilling works of the entire year would be something of a major understatement. This movie is the kind of glorious achievement a person can’t get out of their head, and by the time it was over the only thing I wanted to do was sit right back down in my theater seat and watch it again.
The look of the film almost defies description. Ford’s use of color is extraordinary, the way he and cinematographer Eduard Grau keep everything in sepia tones throughout gives things a haunting, almost ethereal quality matching George’s internal thought patterns. But whenever something strikes his fancy – the way a child skips, the sight of young couple sitting on a campus lawn, the way a Hispanic lothario’s muscles gently ripple underneath his shirt, the curling of Charley’s ruby red lips as she lights up a cigarette – the world comes back to life, a Technicolor euphoria filtering through him hinting that life might not be worth giving up on.
This trick of light, color and sound becomes haunting and hypnotic, each frame a doorway into a new emotion or feeling leading to deeper insights into George’s state of mind. His love for Jim is beyond palpable, and watching him deal with the pain of that loss while trying to rationalize the giving up of hope for a new beginning was the kind of thing that cold have broken my heart. Yet Ford does not allow this to happen, his spell so beguiling it breaks through the misery to reveal larger truths which allowed me to believe the fragile educator could rise above the fray.
As good a job as the freshman filmmaker does here none of it would matter a lick without Firth. A wonderful actor under even the worst of conditions (see Mamma Mia! or What a Girl Wants for proof), the heights he soars here are positively stratospheric. This is a performance of great nuance, of extreme subtlety, and watching him swim this story’s complicated human waters continually sent shivers up and down my spine. In my opinion this is an acting achievement for the ages, and as good as Firth was in the BBC production of “Pride and Prejudice” or in 2003’s Girl with the Pearl Earring I feel like he’s outdone himself here.
Moore nearly matches him, the only reason she falls short having to do with the limited nature of her character’s screen time. Nonetheless, the impression Charley makes is undeniable, her dinner with George a constant rollercoaster whose final destination refuses to reveal itself. There is so much rise and fall, so much give and take, a lesser actress would have resorted to cliché histrionics in order to get her character’s points across. Not Moore. Her work is a model of decorum and restraint, and without pulling her hair out and by refusing to shriek hysterically she achieves a level of intimacy with both Firth and with the audience that cuts right to the very center of the emotional core.
Not everything is perfect. The movie tends to drag a little from time to time, Ford so unhurried a couple scenes end up going on a bit longer than they really needed to. I wasn’t also completely sold on the blossoming relationship between George and one of his students, and while this third act journey was hardly unexpected it still never had the weight or the meaning Isherwood probably intended in his prose.
Still, when all is said and done Ford manages to end things on a coda that is both heart-wrenching and joyous all at the same time. He manages to find bliss in tragedy, happiness in regret, highs and lows working in tandem to reveal universal emotional certainties viewers no matter what their race, color, creed or sexual orientation can find sustenance in. A Single Man speaks in a voice everyone and anyone should take the time to listen to, the truths it shares ones I imagine can’t help but last forever.
Film Rating: êêê1/2 (out of 4)
Additional Links
