“A Single Man” (2009)
Tom Ford’s beautiful cinematic debut.
Following a couple of rather lovely compliments in relation to my musings on Tom Ford’s second film Nocturnal Animals, I thought it high time to delve low into the compliments well once again with this, my rambling take on his debut film from 14 years ago. Originally written in the Summer of 2016, I won’t steal my own thunder of appreciation for the film and I hope you enjoy my individualised take on a film I adore and a quotation from which I’ve stolen and used for the past decade or more.
“I was never terribly fond of waking up”
Based on the novel of the same name by Christopher Isherwood and written, produced and directed as his debut feature length film by Tom Ford, A Single Man left me somewhat cold after I originally watched this in early 2010 but I’ve starkly reappraised my first impressions after re-watching this for the purposes of this blog. I was always in awe of Colin Firth’s central performance and this appreciation grew ever stronger with my recent repeat viewing, as did my appreciation of Julianne Moore’s brilliant supporting role and those from Nicholas Hoult, Matthew Goode and Jon Kortajarena. But what particularly struck me on re-watching this film seven years on from it’s initial release was how well crafted A Single Man is, from Ford’s direction and his choice of oblique and unusual camera angles and numerous extreme close up shots that place us as the audience in the shoes of the characters so well. For his choice of slow motion sequences and flashbacks and particularly a repeated use of reflections, be they via windows or Colin Firth’s glasses all of which continually reinforce the turbulent and anxious nature of the main characters.
The film is edited frenetically at times, juxtaposing many differing images in a blur of time and thus again constantly confirming the conflicted minds at play here, with Joan Sobel deserving of special praise for her editorial skills, as does Director of Photography Eduard Grau for his pitch perfect reflection of the time period (late 1940’s through to the early Cold War of the 1960’s) and his colour palette that’s slightly drained and de-saturated, through to the moonlit dip in the ocean towards the end of the film. After re-watching A Single Man I have just a single gripe with the film, and that is that it’s two minutes too long! If only the film ended with Colin Firth stood beside the fireplace of his sumptuous home reflecting on his day it would have been an almost perfect film for me. But alas we have a further two minutes of screen time following this and an ending that perhaps we as an audience didn’t deserve. Although given the ninety minutes that precede this moment, it’s maybe not the ending many of the audience may expect.
A Single Man follows the final day in the life of “George” (Colin Firth) an English Professor still grieving after the death of his boyfriend of 16 years “Jim” (Matthew Goode). Unable to come to terms with and fully reconcile the passing of the man he deeply loved, George resolves to take his own life at the end of the day ahead. Haunted by dreams and nightmares of his late boyfriend he wakes every day simply wishing he hadn’t, before donning a metaphorical suit of armour to meet every new day and as he narrates aptly “to play the part of George”. He feels he’s “sinking” and “drowning” and this is expertly realised by Director Ford with his shot of a melancholic George staring out of the window of his home but with the lower half of his legs obscured by the reflection and camera angle cleverly used. One final day of schooling and time to put his affairs in order before a final late night dinner with his long term friend and neighbour “Charley” (Julianne Moore) however two further events are to shape his destiny before the day is out.
Of the 23 credited roles in A Single Man, 5 consistently stand out with Colin Firth naturally taking centre stage in every sense and rightly accorded an Oscar nomination for an Actor in a Leading Role in 2010. With his perfect English diction and faraway melancholic air of despair, Firth is sublime in a deliberately understated way and never grandstanding in his role as George. Adored by women and somewhat surrounded by them at times, he reciprocates this adoration through compliments and through his thoroughly English gentleman air which is perfectly encapsulated in his relationship with Charley. They are clearly dependant on each other and a reflection of the other, both sharing feelings of being sorry for oneself and a perceived injustice at the world despite the opulent lifestyles they both enjoy. In her minimal screen time in a supporting role, Julianne Moore excels as the melancholic hedonist Charley who simply relies on, and can’t be without, the crutch that George provides in her life. Jim appears both in flashbacks and George’s dreams but in what could be argued as an almost reincarnation of Jim is “Kenny” (Nicholas Hoult), a late teen student obsessed with his Professor. Their joint scenes are a marvel of the film as well as indicative of the many awkward juxtapositions in George’s life, with his desires played against the mundane reality of the day, his desires for another juxtaposed with his grief for his lost love and never is this more starkly apparent than in his accidental meeting with James Dean lookalike “Carlos” (Jon Kortajarena) which is brilliantly shot against a billboard background for Alfred Hitchcock’s film “Psycho”.
“One must always appreciate life’s little gifts” proclaims George in a more upbeat moment of a film that despite it’s general air of melancholy can be sardonically and darkly humorous. Themes of death, loneliness, fear of the post Cold War future but especially the value we place on human interactions pervade a film that truly won me over on a recent second viewing and would have been damn near perfect had it ended just two minutes sooner.
But that shouldn’t detract from a glorious and ultra stylish debut film from Tom Ford.
Thanks for reading. Just for larks as always, and always a human reaction rather than spoilers galore. My three most recently published film articles are linked below or there’s well over 100 blog articles (with 300+ individual film reviews) within my archives from which to choose:
