Henry Saw: A Single Man

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A Single Man is one of the more highly praised independent films of the year. Written and directed by first time director Tom Ford (a known name in the fashion industry), and adapted from a book by Christopher Isherwood, A Single Man tells the story of a day in the life of an English, homosexual, college professor named George Falconer (Colin Firth) who plans to kill himself at the end of that day. During the day we see George reminisce about his dead lover Jim (Matthew Goode), make a connection with one his students named Kenny (Nicholas Hoult) at the small California university where he teaches, and have dinner and drinks with his best friend Charley (Julianne Moore).

A Single Man, if it is anything, is a character study. There's not much plot here, though there is more than in the novel where George isn't considering suicide and it just covers a routine day in George's life, and the film isn't apologetic for that. It moves at a very deliberate pace, with the specific intent of getting us inside George's head, and never tries to force action into a story that has no room for it.

As this is a character study, the bulk of the responsibility falls to Ford and Firth to make us care about, and understand, George. They both do their jobs admirably. Because of Ford's fashion background I was worried that the whole film would feel too precious; that each shot would seem too staged and overly artful. I thought the film would be all style and no substance. While the movie does look great, though perhaps not as unique or interesting as I might have hoped, Ford does keep George's story front and center. All the stylistic flourishes are there to better portray how George sees the world or where his mind is wandering.

Ford does do some interesting things with the camera that, for me, vacillated between clever and irritating. He changes the color of the film stock quite often. Sometimes it's as small a change as intensifying the blue color of Kenny's blue eyes to show how beautiful they are to George. In other instances Ford intensifies all the colors on the screen, or completely drains the scene of any color whatsoever, depending on what George is going through at that moment. Ford also edits in a lot of cutaway shots to show what George is looking at and focused on even when a separate conversation is occurring. I found this particular technique to be overused and unnecessary.



Overall one would have to say that Ford's directorial debut is solid, and shows a lot of potential, but doesn't show enough vibrancy. A Single Man's lack of action does not mean that the film can't have a vitality or lusciousness that Ford's film lacks. When the film works best it is not because of Ford's direction but because of the strong performances from some of the cast.

Colin Firth is getting a lot of Oscar buzz for this part and I can understand why. He is barely recognizable as George. He sells the depression of the character while also making clear that this used to be a man of great wit and reserved silliness. Sometimes the script or his co-stars let him down (we'll get to that) but Firth is excellent throughout. Whether it is lecturing his class on an issue they can barely understand (though we all catch on perfectly), or flirting with a Spanish gigolo, Firth makes us believe in George, his grief, and his desire to be free of that pain.



The film is most "alive" in the flashback scenes between George and Jim. There is a real warmth and comfort to Colin Firth and Matthew Goode's interaction and their dialogue. The bulk of the movie is about how depressed George is over Jim's death so we have to understand that pain. Goode, an actor I run hot and cold on (he was the brother in Match Point and Ozymandias in Watchmen), is really good in his small amount of screen time. He does a perfect American accent, adds a grounded presence in a film populated by characters dealing with extreme emotions, and makes us understand why George would be so affected by his sudden death.

The other co-stars aren't nearly as good. Julianne Moore, an actress who has always annoyed me, continues that trend here. She's getting rave reviews as George's best friend and confidant Charley, a former lover who comforted him after hearing about Jim's death, and who still has feelings for George despite knowing he's gay. While she does bring a nice amount of energy to an otherwise sedate film, and has a good moment where she almost dismisses George and Jim's relationship entirely, she's also just irritating. Her laugh, her bad English accent (Charley is supposed to be an old friend from London who followed Jim to L.A.), and her rapid mood swings were more exhausting than exhilarating. She does bring out more charm from Firth than he's allowed to show in the rest of the film but I do not understand the buzz for Moore's performance.

Nicholas Hoult plays Kenny, a handsome student who becomes infatuated with George, and is the worst actor in the film. While he's very good-looking, it is in a Calvin Kline model way, and he is a constant reminder of Ford's other career. I kept waiting for a shot of Hoult with no shirt on and dripping wet like one might see on a billboard in Soho (and guess what...we get that shot). Also, his character Kenny is suppose to represent hope and kindness for George but he comes off as creepy and slutty. The first interaction they have is convincing, an awkward conversation on campus where neither can really say what they're thinking, but every scene after that had the wrong tone due to Hoult's portrayal (and Ford's direction). He also has zero chemistry with Firth so both struggle to convince us that there is something there.

The weakest major aspect of the film is the script. While some scenes are excellently constructed like the conversation with George and the Spanish Gigolo, or all the scenes with George and Jim, most have a strange forced feeling to them. None of the flirtation between George and Kenny works and the major scene with Charley is filled with dialogue that doesn't sound natural. The pace of the film is also labored; despite being a short film (101 minutes) it feels much longer. While some of that is the editor's fault, and the basic nature of the plot (a man goes through his day with suicide as the goal), the script doesn't pepper in enough tension or emotion to keep us engrossed.



All in all this is a film that's worth seeing - any movie by a new "auteur" and featuring a strong central performance is worth seeing - but I really didn't like it very much. It's strangely forgettable and while the mood is convincing, the actual character interaction is not, and one wonders if a movie focused on George and Jim's romance might not have been the stronger film. The ending is also weak, a cop-out of sorts, and I don't think it has the significance Ford thought it had. Firth is good here, really good in some scenes, but he's probably not heartbreaking enough. There are also too many scenes where Ford tries to get us inside his head by showing us flashes of things instead of trusting Firth to show us in his acting. Firth deserves the Oscar nod he will get...but I'm not sure he was any better than Clooney was in Up in the Air...and I'm not sure either of them deserve to win the award.

Also, there was a weird cameo from Jon Hamm in the film that, given the setting of this movie and of Mad Men, was a very weird call.

Grade: B-

Best Scene: The scene outside a liquor store between Jim and a Spanish Gigolo who "looks better than James Dean."