Near the beginning of Tom Ford's A Single Man, protagonist Colin Firth, answers the phone expecting it to be his boyfriend/life partner, but instead gets the voice of his boyfriend's brother. For those who watch Mad Men, it is clear that the voice is that of Jon Hamm who plays Don Draper on the television show. That the movie also takes place in 1962 perhaps leads to the joke that Don Draper would be on the phone - but the reality is that Ford seems more concerned with the look and superficial feel of the picture than the story therein. At the end of the day, he gives us a highly stylized day-in-the-life story set on a very glossy Mad Men set with much less of a dynamic story than you'd get in one episode of the show.
Firth plays George, a middle-aged gay university English professor who has been living for 16 years with his partner Jim, played by Matthew Goode. One night George finds out that Jim has been killed in a car accident, but of course he is not invited to the family memorial ceremony (it's the early 1960s, after all). Instead he spends the day (or a few days) remembering and missing his great love. He seeks help from his long-time friend Charley, played by Julianne Moore, who is a sad, drunk single woman. Ultimately, he goes to the bar where he first met Jim and there finds one of his more precocious and handsome students, Kenny, played by Nicholas Hoult, who clearly is looking to hook up with him.
In his directorial debut, clothing designer Tom Ford, does a good job making this film look nice. The interiors look great and full of 1960s tchotchkes and cinematographer Eduard Grau does a nice job creating an amber, orangey color throughout. Considering how straight-forward the story is, the film really relies on the visual look on screen to hold the viewers' interest. Sadly these visual elements, combined with an overbearing score by Abel Korzeniowski are very superficial and don't really show any depth beyond the first blush. The style feels almost like Ford is trying too hard - like 'Look! I can make a pretty film just like I can make a pretty gown' - and the result is a big annoying and frustrating. I'd much prefer just a nice looking movie without so much flash.
Generally the acting is good. Firth spends most of the movie sulking and dealing with his internal pain. He's good, but it's such an interior performance that it doesn't come off as much more than a series of grimaces. Moore is very good as an English ex-pat now living in Los Angeles. She is drunk basically the whole film and comes across as a Marianne Faithful-type broken woman with a hard life. Hoult is very good as an American California boy with a surfer bowl haircut. His accent is wonderful and he is totally appealing.
I feel strange saying this, but there is not a lot here that I can really sink my teeth into. I appreciate that Ford is trying to make it look nice, but he doesn't give a lot to work with and think about. Basically George is a standard intellectual gay man who has lost the love of his life and is dealing with it. I can't say even the way he deals with is is particularly interesting. He goes to work, he is sad there, so he goes to visit a friend, then he considers a one-night stand. It's very banal as far as a story. I also can't figure out how it is at all relevant that the character is gay - maybe there is no significance in that - but it just feels so banal that maybe his homosexuality is supposed to convey something special to me. I don't think it does.
Stars: 1.5 of 4
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Actually, the one thing I liked least about this film is the look, which is odd considering it's Tom Ford and you'd imagine he at least would make a pretty film. When Firth looks at another man and finds they guy sexy, the whole screen is tinged orange, which is just embarrassing. One scene at a liquor story has an incredibly vivid poster on the side of a building that is pure Almodovar and wildly distracting. But the three main performances are solid and Nicholas Hoult is EXTREMELY appealing. However, I'm confused by the timing. I didn't realize Firth's partner/lover/husband had JUST died. I thought that had been a little while ago. Otherwise, I think Julianne Moore's character would have been more aware of the tragedy that had just occurred OR clueless that Goode had died because Firth hadn't told her. I believe that happened a while ago -- months? A year or more? I don't know. Not important, but just saying.
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