A SINGLE MAN: a visually striking and beautifully played drama of loss

It's no coincidence that every scene in A SINGLE MAN evokes those sumptuously staged and photographed ads for designer brand clothing and perfumes which proliferate in up-market magazines like Vanity Fair.

The film's writer-producer-director Tom Ford made his name as a fashion designer - most famously with Gucci - before taking an ambitious jump into moviemaking last year, and bringing with him a talent for creating striking visual images.
Beautiful is the word that comes closest to adequately describing not only his recreation of 1962 suburban Los Angeles but also the characters who inhabit it, and in particularly Colin Firth as George Falconer, an English professor struggling to come to terms with the sudden death of his long term partner, Jim, in a car crash. 
Ford plays with light and colour, alternating both from one scene to the next to reflect George's emotions and state of mind as he goes about his daily routine and daydreams about happier times with Jim. His memories of a passionate past are flooded with vivid reds and yellows which stand in stark contrast to the dark browns and washed out skin tones of his solitary present. This colour-coded signalling of love and loneliness reaches a not-so-subtle climax when George finds himself unexpectedly seduced by one of his students. In their early scenes together the young man radiates rich golden hues while his teacher appears almost ghostly. Although Ford probably makes a little too much use of this technique it never quite reaches the point of annoyance.
But what makes A SINGLE MAN so much more than simply one hundred minutes of glossy and extremely appealing eye candy is Colin Firth. He garnered a richly deserved Oscar nomination for his magnificent portrayal of a buttoned down, middle-aged, meticulously correct Englishman abroad whose well ordered life has lost all meaning with the death of his lover. 

Firth's familiar screen persona as a rather stiff and terribly English gentleman whose very formal exterior conceals a passionate heart works well for him here, playing a man who hides his sexuality in plain sight from a disapproving society. George makes several loaded references to the persecuted minorities in our midst while teaching his literature class, and it's no coincidence that he and Jim have designed a house for themselves filled with glass walls. It's not particularly subtle but it is effective.  
Watching A SINGLE MAN I was reminded of Sophia Coppola's feature-length directorial debut with "The Virgin Suicides." Both films display a very unique and engaging style of storytelling, and create an impression which lingers long after the final credits have rolled. Coppola's subsequent films have confirmed she really is a talented and original filmmaker. It'll be interesting to see whether Tom Ford can do the same.