Sony Pictures | 2009 | 100 mins. | Rated R
Based on the 1964 novel by Christopher Isherwood, A Single Man marks the directing debut of Tom Ford (who also co-wrote the script with David Scearce), a Fashion designer renowned for his work with Gucci. Made for $7 million, A Single Man brought in just over triple its budget worldwide and scored several accolades, including BAFTA and Venice Film Festival Best Actor honors for Firth, as well as Oscar and Golden Globe nominations in the same category. Julianne Moore was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress. Given his expert eye for fashion, it comes as little surprise the Ford has crafted such a unique and stylized film.
Colin Firth stars as George Falconer, a British émigré in his early 50’s, living a comfortable life in 1962 Los Angeles, when the United States and the Soviet Union stood on the brink of nuclear war. Falconer, a college professor, suffers his own personal crisis. Beset by grief over the recent accidental death of his longtime partner Jim (Matthew Goode), George is completely lost.
Ford painstakingly takes us through the minutiae of George’s day from the moment he reluctantly gets out of bed. His every motion is fluid and knowing. Though he clearly is a fastidious fellow, today appears particularly purposefully. It seems as though he’s putting his affairs in order so that he can neatly end his own life.
George’s best friend, Charley (Julianne Moore), is a boozy ex-love from when George either believed he was a heterosexual or was trying to be. She is the one who George still turns to for comfort, even if she vainly longs for more from their relationship. (Charley’s hair and makeup is about as glamorous a shield against approaching old age as you’ll ever see.) Their friendship is the kind that we all hope for in our lives. There is genuine love and respect between them.
He has several encounters with a young student named Kenny (Nicholas Hoult), throughout the day. That evening, George heads to a local bar for gin and cigarettes, only to have Kenny stumble in. The two converse, skinny dip in the ocean nearby, and return to George´s home for a final discussion on life, passion and the future. This both wakes him up and makes him understand himself better. More importantly, it forces George to evaluate what’s most important in his life.
Not surprisingly, Ford has an eye for composing shots that are almost poetic, and though this sometimes makes the film look like a Calvin Klein ad, the overall effect is one of beauty. This is where Ford’s experience as a fashion designer comes in handy: He knows what is pleasing to the eye. He and his cinematographer, Eduard Grau, have done something highly unusual with the film’s colors, too, often subtly moving from drained grays to more vibrant hues and back again, sometimes in the same scene. When something appears in George’s life that gives him cause for hope, his outlook literally grows brighter. When George remembers a conversation with Jim on the beach, the hue is monochrome. Conversely, when his is talking to Kenny at his home—watch the young man’s blue eyes—the more alive George feels, the bluer Kenny’s eyes become.
Granted, there are moments where this effect is decidedly overdone. When George stands in front of a billboard for Psycho outside a liquor store, for example, it looks like pop art. And there are moments during a dinner scene at Charley’s house when everything is so draped in the 1962 Kennedy era gauche, that it feels unrealistic.
Those small issues aside, Tom Ford and his very capable production team have created a film that effectively peels back the layers, and lets us witness one man’s profound experience with grief and bereavement.
The strong 2.40:1 1080p High Definition image helps the film step back to 1962. Colors jump to life with a vividness and vibrancy, while the picture exhibits minimal grain (there is some on occasion during a few black and white flashbacks George has) throughout. The detail put into sets and costumes is evident via the video transfer, especially during scenes in Charley’s home and George´s office.
Dialogue and music are the highlight in A Single Man. Each spoken word comes through with solid tone, and musicians Abel Korzeniowski and Shigeru Umebayashi appropriately place classical pieces and what were at the time contemporary hits throughout. The natural background noises that dominate most during the film´s English 5.1 DTS-High Definition Master Audio soundtrack are cigarettes being lit and smoked, as well as alcohol being poured and sipped. English subtitles are available.
The Blu-ray offers minimal special features. There is a featurette titled “The Making of A Single Man and commentary with director Ford. BD-Live and movieIQ functions but some cast interviews would have been nice.
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