Film Review A Single Man 
US 2009. Cert: 12A. 101min. Dir: Tom Ford. Cast: Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, Nicholas Hoult, Matthew Goode.
Film Review: A Single Man
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The movie debut from fashion designer Tom Ford is as sleek, stylish and pretentious as you would expect from the man who turned Gucci into a global phenomenon and is now the signature behind his own label. All of which - particularly the handling of huge budgets and the practice of turning creative ideas into commerce - means that Ford is undoubtedly more qualified than many first time directors to step behind the camera. With A Single Man, he shows great discipline and confidence with an eagerness to take risks at every opportunity.
Most of which pay off - lingering close-ups feel like long perfume commercials, equally non-realist yet beautiful, and his suicidal day-in-the-life narrative of a gay professor is hardly the most unobtrusive of subject matters. It’s well measured, though, and generously paced, even if few directors would focus so intently on such immaculate presentation, particularly the interior apartment shots which are far too minimalist for 1960s Los Angeles, mirrored by lead actor Colin Firth’s faultless tailoring, itself dealt with as an almost monotonous routine to mirror the character’s waning emotions. At times, it is difficult to ignore the parallels with the ‘Tom Ford’ brand, but look through this and you’ll find an essentially ambitious, beguiling project.
Helped, in no small part, by a cast of expert performers; notably Firth, who abandons his wet rom com routine to play George, an educated, tormented English professor struggling to cope with the death of his partner, Jim, who has been killed in a car crash. Ford gives this away right at the very top and touches upon the more intimate moments of their relationship in a series of colour intensive flashbacks (contrary to the bleak, saturated lens he uses for the latter-day shots, itself a subtle and successful thematic trick). We follow George as he struggles through a full day in the sunny suburban isolation of L.A., 1962, at the height of the Cuban missile crisis, teaching ‘state of fear’ metaphors with reference to Aldous Huxley, eventually befriending one of his young students in the process (‘Skins’ actor Nicholas Hoult).
Julianne Moore plays a fellow British ex-pat and former love interest, doing her best Sarah Ferguson impression, who adds nostalgia to George’s back story. But with the early glimpse of a firearm in his apartment, George’s day has, to some extent, been predetermined. Ford tactfully offers George opportunities for salvation, and watching his relations conflict and unfold is utterly engrossing. Few films offer both style and substance in such equal measures.
Posted on Thursday 18th February 2010
Ben Johnson
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