Writers: Tom Ford, David Scearce, Christopher Isherwood (author)
Starring: Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, Matthew Goode
Release Date: December 11, 2009
Length: 1 hour 39 minutes
The directorial debut of designer Tom Ford, A Single Man is one of the best portrayals of a man’s life on screen, and one of the best films of the year. A Single Man is the story of George (Colin Firth), a middle aged, homosexual, English professor whose partner of sixteen years, Jim (Matthew Goode) has just died from a car accident. The film consists of a day in George’s life, sometime after Jim’s death, with flashbacks of their relationship. Throughout this day, George is ready to kill himself, at the peak of his depression. George has occurrences with different people in his life, like his good friend Charley (Julianne Moore) and one of his college students, Kenny (Nicolas Hoult). It is impossible to believe that this is Tom Ford’s first film, because the story and look and feel of the film was breathtaking. Although I was obviously not alive in the 1960’s, the film made me feel like I was there. Ford clearly has a lot of experience with making things visually beautiful, as he is a world-class fashion designer, but he managed to make the story beautiful as well. I might just be a sucker for gay romances, but he made us connect with the lifestyles and loves between homosexual men, like no other gay romance has. He made us understand everything there is about gay relationships, in a non-sexual way. There were in fact no love scenes in A Single Man and there was hardly any kissing, as well. Every flirtation, or act of love was portrayed through the intense camera work and spectacular acting. Colin Firth was wonderful in A Single Man and I could say he will win an Oscar for A Single Man, but he will probably lose out to Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart. Undoubtedly though, Firth definitely deserves to win an Oscar for his performance in A Single Man. Julianne Moore is one of the best actresses around, and despite her having only one scene in this film, her performance was enormously enjoyable to watch. Matthew Goode was certainly handsome in his role as Jim, but in addition, Goode and Firth shared a very strong chemistry with each other. Nicolas Hoult, best known for being the kid in About A Boy was also very good as Kenny, the college student. It is guaranteed that A Single Man is one of the best films of 2009 and is sure to be nominated at the 2010 Academy Awards. I certainly cannot wait for Tom Ford’s next film, as he has proven with A Single Man, that he is nothing short of a marvelous director.
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