A Single Man

"We're invisible," Jim (Matthew Goode) says early on to his lover George (Colin Firth) in fashion designer Tom Ford's debut feature film, A Single Man, as he edges closer to give him a smooch in their private residence. It's a powerful sentiment in an unapologetically gay, unpolitical sad love story set in a lush version of 1960s Los Angeles. The film itself never even utters the word "gay," or "homosexual," but the doomed lovers of the film make a striking pair, and the setting makes a potent case for the people that unfortunately inhabited an era in which they couldn't naturally be themselves. In many ways, there are still places like this today. But more to the point, director Ford deftly and beautifully adapts Christopher Isherwood's haunting and quiet character study with a sturdy hand in technique that rarely falters. The famed fashion designer seems more than adept at establishing period (which probably isn't too much of a surprise), and has a lot of fun with the period detail of production design and costuming, but the faultless and powerful acting of the leading players here prevent A Single Man from being mere window dressing.

The film opens with George in sleepless despair over the loss of his lover of sixteen years, Jim, who died in a tragic car accident. Unaware of how to deal with the pain of the love that still is socially shunned, the film follows George over a very long day in what may becomes (as he plans) the last day of his life. What makes the quiet and reserved George an involving and moving character is all in way Firth portrays him. Above anything else A Single Man is a tribute to his marvelous performance. Early on in the film, he's informed via phone that his late lover's memorial will be a "family only" event, and the quiet desperation on his face, embodied by a long running single tear, almost fetishized by Ford, Firth grounds the film and delivers such a persuasively emotional and tender performance.

A Single Man is not so much bogged by plot, but motivated by mood, and Ford does an expert job of making the film colorful and emphatically breathtaking visually-- it almost feels like a lost film by Almodovar at times, yet he ably steers clear of melodrama through the control of the actors, also including the great Julianne Moore, as George's old friend (and one time female fling who always loved him), a big, ballsy dramatic creature soaked in gin. Moore's brief sequence in the film could in some ways be seen as the comical portion, because of the mad gusto and brio she brings to the role, but it would be wrong, I think, to call it shallow, even if it is over-the-top. Her love for George aches her almost as much as George's love for Jim. She knows (even if she resents him for it) that it will never be returned, and serves a stand-in to all the gals and guys in similar problems-- un-returned affection from gays by the straight that yen for them isn't something seriously explored much in movies, but I think holds true for many. Moore is bold, but it never feels wrong. Other events of George's very long day include a flirtation with a student (Nicholas Hoult-- from About a Boy fame, all grown up) and mundane rituals leading up to his impending suicide.

I feel haunted by this film in a way I haven't felt in a long time, and perhaps I need a second viewing to truly absorb the artifical beauty of the film, and feel the flow. But now, on one viewing, I feel confident in thinking that A Single Man is a puzzling, but mesmerizing piece of cinema, gay or otherwise. And Colin Firth, rid of the Mr. Darcy cloak, gives his most powerful performance to date. A-