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MUSCL954 wrote on 07/23/2010:

Slow. Tedious. Boring. I'm not sure what was more off-putting -- Tom Ford's pretentious style or the totally unsatisfying ending. I must admit I have not read the book on which this movie is based. Therefore, I cannot blame Mr. Ford for the movie's content. He filmed a movie based on the book -- including the ending. However, there was never any tension between characters, no climax to the film. I found none of the characters endearing or worthy of my interest.

george wrote on 07/13/2010:

Having heard and read so many glowing reviews concerning the film “A Single Man”, I purchased this DVD fearing that I might be a little disappointed—I was NOT! If anything, I was far more moved by the film than I thought I would be shedding copious tears throughout practically the entire movie. My reaction, I know, was because it is so wonderfully acted by especially Colin Firth and fabulously directed by Tom Ford!

Colin Firth has been a long time favorite actor of mine. I became a serious fan of his after seeing him in “Another Country” many years ago. However, I do feel this film shows him at his very best. I was simply overwhelmed. His portrayal of a man that has just lost the love of his life and intends to do away with himself is fantastic. This movie shows Colin as George on this “last day” of his life and how he deals with that one last day of his life. What fine nuances Colin brings to his acting. It’s a performance that will ”stick” to me for a long, long time. After viewing this movie, I’ve had dreams about it and think about it a lot during the day especially about Colin as George and his acting. There are moments in the movie that just a look from Colin Firth reduced me to tears—he is that good.

I’m not overlooking the other actors in the movie. All of the actors in this are great. I especially adored Julianne Moore as George’s long time frustrated “girlfriend”. Colin and her little dance sequence is marvelous.

Tom Ford in his first directional debut of a film makes this movie really “work” for me! He certainly has a fine eye for detail. Having lived through the era, I feel that he “got” the early 1960s just right even showing pink cigarettes in one scene. But most of all he got great performances out of everyone in the movie—I loved it.

The DVD is great with a clear picture and sound. By the way, the sound track is wonderful.

.

just a reviewer wrote on 07/11/2010:

......performance by a Colin Firth at the very top of his game. Oh, and
forget any "gay" connotation; it's really not important. Why? Because
in an alternate version of this film, Firth would play the role in a
same-words, same-emotions kind of way......in EXACTLY the same
heart-rending manner we've just witnessed from him on screen. In it,
"George" would face loss of his life's love---either female lover or
more likely, wife---and struggle toward a way in which to go on. In
such a different version of the film, an English Department blonde
secretary would, perhaps, become a "Carlos." But, like "George," only
"Kenny" (a neuter character searching for his sexuality and/or a victim
of hero worship) can reenact his role in the second version. I believe
it is paramount you realize that Firth, particularly, would play his
character in an identical manner---no matter the sex of his "partner."

That's correct, viewers past and future; now you've got it. This is NOT
a gay drama (certainly not a gay romance), but rather a tale of love
lost (one of life's biggest) and, more importantly, is a lesson in
enduring. BUT....if in the end you fail to see it as other than one of
the top performances by an actor you may ever witness, then your love
of film / movies is restrictive and shallow.

****

Toby Ross wrote on 04/02/2010:

Beautifully shot, slow moving but not boring, I personally went to see it for one reason only Mathew Goode, whom I saw first in "Imagine You an Me" and thought he had a spark the shined beyond his obvious acting talents. His smile can melt an iceberg. My only thing to critic is that the student who all through the movie tried to seduce Colin Firth's character wore a hair do ala "beatles monkeys" 1968 while this was taken places in 1962 when no one even dared to think wearing their hair like that. (1962 was the American Graffiti year).

Amos Lassen wrote on 03/25/2010:

"A Single Man"


The Pain of Grief

In an astonishing directorial debut, esteemed fashion designer Tom Ford dazzles his audience with a stylised collection of homoerotic cinematic encounters that mark his most personal project to date. And boy does the quality show.

Not least of which is courtesy of the commanding lead performance from Colin Firth who here stars as George Falconer; a closeted professor of words living in the Cuban missile crisis era of ‘60s America who has found love in the arms of a younger man named Jim (Matthew Goode), their long-term relationship of sixteen years being as assured as day follows night, that is until a ‘phone call from Jim’s cousin informs him that the one he holds most dear has died in a car crash. Effectively barred from the ‘family only’ and here think ‘heteros only’ funeral and tired of putting on 'the face of George' that the world expects to see, his despondent life thereafter alternates between social interludes with his best friend and one-time lover Charley (Julianne Moore); a fellow Brit who masks her own unhappiness by way of the gin bottle and lectures to university students whose minds, like his, are on other things. Only in George’s case, a day of contemplation descends into acts of putting his life in order, suicide fashion.

And if all this sounds kind of depressing, then fear not, for Ford alongside screenwriter David Scearce have taken the novel by Christopher Isherwood and delivered a film that if anything speaks of enjoying to the full the joys of life, as we come to witness George finally living life in the present, sampling those ‘joie du vie’ moments that we all too often are seemingly too busy, to relish. Yet whilst Julianne Moore (of Savage Grace fame) is on fine form throughout as the girl whose ideal man turned out to be gay, it is a series of remembrances of George’s life with Jim, together with his encounters with Spanish street hustler Carlos (former Ford model Jon Kortajarena) and gay student Kenny (Nicholas Hoult of About a Boy and UK TV‘s Skins credit), both of whom are only too willing to get to know the man behind the image, that form the homosexual backbone of this work, one in which flashback sequences burn with the radiant glow of life, leaving the present a deliberate bland visual existence, until ... well that would be saying.

Suffice to say, that when you’ve seen as many gay films as you can shake a critical keyboard at, then you get used to works of varying quality; from those that outshine their modest, if almost non-existent budget, to those that even when backed by the multi-million dollar might of Hollywood, still fail to deliver the goods. Yet every once in a while, along comes a film that has the words ‘quality guaranteed’ stamped all over it. And thankfully this is one such occasion, as Ford's keen attention to detail is clearly evident from day one, delighting as he does in the compositional fabric of his piece, with scenes of surrealism, drama, homoeroticism, tragedy and comedy of both the light and dark variety added to a mix that is dominated by the universal themes of the grieving process and living life for all its worth.

And whilst Dan Bishop's stunning production design, Abel Korzeniowski’s hunting string score and Eduard Grau's lush cinematography are of note, it is Colin Firth who in a career defining performance here takes centre stage to vividly portray the meaning of love, the pain of grief and the inner mind of a man hurting so much over the death of his male lover, that life for him seemingly cannot go on. Yet this is also a work about fear; the fears held by society of minority groups, fears held by yourself, indeed the fear held at the time in which the story was written, of being openly gay or even gay full stop. And whilst this exquisite visual treat may not prove to be the crossover film that Brokeback Mountain was, even if the scenario of homosexual love and the loss of one’s partner mirror both, it certainly is one of the most stylistically moving gay features to hit the screen in a long time. A pure triumph for Ford and a sheer artistic delight to watch. Need more be said?