Typically, it’s difficult to distinguish Colin Firth from the roles he takes on, but that isn’t the case here. Firth transforms into his character, perfectly tailored clothing, blonde highlights and clipped British accent included. This transformation alone is reason enough to see the film.
Adapted from the novel by Christopher Isherwood, the story is set in the 1960s during the Cuban missile crisis, when the threat of a nuclear attack hung over the United States. This was also a time when communism was a regular conversation topic, beehives were the hairstyle of choice and homosexuality was taboo.
As an English professor at a small college in Los Angeles, impressing young minds with the likes of Aldous Huxley, George is forced to keep his sexual preferences closeted. The reality is George contently spent 16 years of his life in a committed relationship with a considerably younger man, Jim (Matthew Goode). The love George feels for his deceased paramour runs so deep that eight months after Jim’s death, the pain of his loss is still as fresh as if it had happened yesterday. Each morning, he wakes up with the realization that his world was forever altered by one unforgettable night when he received the call that Jim was killed in a terrible car accident. This ill-fated incident, which George relives in a flashback, turns him into a cynical, suicidal shell of his former self.
One morning, George awakens with the sudden awareness that a life without Jim is not a life worth living and resolves to end his suffering. With the grim resolution that this will be his last day alive, George goes through his daily routine, with the added preparations of setting his financial and personal affairs in order.
As if this were any other day, George prepares for class, placing an unloaded gun in his briefcase before leaving his house and driving to campus. While George is presiding over his class, one student, Kenny (Nicholas Hoult), notices that the professor seems to be out of sorts. George notices Kenny too, although for a different reason — with his golden hair and piercing blue eyes, the college student could have walked straight out of the pages of an Abercrombie ad.
Kenny strikes up a flirtation (is that right?) with his middle-aged professor, expressing his concern over George’s well-being and offering up a friendly ear. This isn’t the last we see of the cherubic youth, who does his best to show George that all hope is not lost.
After an unaccountably long day of tying up loose ends, George fulfills his promise to visit his close friend and fellow expatriate, Charley, played with wonderful abandon by Julianne Moore. The two are former lovers, although it is apparent that Charley views their time together more dearly than George has.
While seeming to sympathize with George’s heartache, her casual view of his relationship with Jim reveals that she’s never quite given up the hope that she and George could be together. Charley appears to be just as lost as George, if not more so. Moore superbly portrays her character as a lonely housewife, masking her inner pain with a carefully made-up face and a couple rounds of gin and tonic.
Though the relationship between Charley and George is complicated, to say the least, it is the latter’s relationship with Jim that is central to the story. Through multiple flashbacks, George looks back on their time together with nothing but fondness. Goode is charming as Jim, using his minimal screen time to great effect.
Directed and written (he shares the credit with David Scearce) by fashion designer Tom Ford, “A Single Man” is breathtaking to behold. Ford brings a surprising amount of energy to the film, relating the story through George’s jaded perspective. The film unfolds at a leisurely pace, which allows viewers to fully absorb the captivating spectacle he has created.
From its visually stunning execution, it is obvious that each scene in the film was meticulously planned, down to the smallest of props. With Ford’s impeccable eye for style, the film becomes an ever-changing work of art that is constantly evolving with each additional scene.
Ford’s way of paying great attention to the smallest of details provides “A Single Man” with an air of authenticity befitting its 1962 setting. A work so painstakingly constructed by the collaboration of everyone involved in the making of this film deserves to be appreciated for the sheer beauty it brings to the big screen.