A Single Man

Review

A lot of compliments have been thrown around for Tom Ford’s directorial debut, A Single Man. But personally, I’m not sure that I’m convinced.

Based on a novel by Christopher Isherwood, A Single Man tells the bittersweet story of George (Colin Firth), a gay English professor who is dealing with a recent death of his lover. The film takes place basically within one day, with flashbacks to days before George was told of the tragic accident.

The film does a good job setting a tone. Within the first ten minutes of the film, it is quite clear where the film is heading. For a debut, Ford has done a really good job establishing a clear, focused aesthetic and mood that supports the melancholic, romantic tone of the film. This seems rather appropriate, since he’s a designer and all.

People in the movie, naturally, dress really well too!However one of the elements that bothered me the most about the film also became obvious early in the film. The film convinces us of the swooping emotions through poetic, swooping sequences early on, but when we arrive at the point where real narrative is introduced, things get kind of choppy. Literally. The film incorporates jump cuts, quite a bunch of them. While this worked in some scenes, when it’s so evenly scattered throughout, I found it simply distracting, especially in relation to the overall mood of the film.

I really wish that Ford had taken Tarsem’s approach with The Fall, and just went all out with swooping visuals. Or maybe he went a bit too far, and the literally choppy editing technique was there to patch the holes and move the pace of the narrative along. I don’t know, but either way it bothered me.
Ford assembled a very, very, very solid cast of actors. George is probably one of Colin Firth’s best works in a while, and the chemistry between him and Julianne Moore is top notch. Matthew Goode and Nicholas Hoult were also notable in their respective roles. The actors and actresses in this film are very, very, very attractive. They look good, and they are believable. Herein lies a dilemma. The film’s visuals, at most parts, work really well to supplement the actors’ very strong, subtle, performances. But one particular effect tipped the balance and went too far.

Ford uses a saturation effect to punctuate certain moments throughout the film. It works at some points of the movie. But when it starts repeating more than twice, it just becomes redundant and obvious. Firth’s acting and Eduard Grau’s cinematography are more than sufficient to communicate everything that needs communicating.

A friend of mine told me that the movie is not bad for a directorial debut. It is definitely not a bad movie, but I personally don’t think the movie is as amazing as everyone is hyping it up to be. It certainly doesn’t leave as much of an impression as Rian Johnson’s Brick, or Aronofsky’s Pi for me. Not even close. But it’s worth watching, for sure.

Originally written for IN*TANDEM Magazine.