‘A Single Man’: emotionally heavy, easy on the eyes

Upon hearing that fashion designer Tom Ford was directing a movie, I was skeptical. Although he did wonders as the creative director of Gucci and made Daniel Craig the most dapper James Bond ever, I shuddered to think of what Ford would be like as a film director. More than that, I wondered if this auteur behavior would encourage other fashion designers to think they could be movie directors. It flows in the same vein as celebrities thinking they can be fashion designers – or even worse: She by Sheree.

All doubt aside, Ford was smart in choosing his content. He decided to tackle Christopher Isherwood’s novel, A Single Man; a story about a man who loses his partner to death and tries to cope with his suicidal thoughts while walking through his mundane, lonely life as a college professor.

More layers of cinematic esteem to the film with Colin Firth as George, the leading man of despair and Julianne Moore as Charley, the eccentric mid-century modern next door neighbor glamazon. Matthew Goode, Ginnifer Goodwin, Nicholas Hoult and Lee Pace pop up on the screen to give Ford the relevance he needs as a director – and that they do.

Cut from the same cloth as Revolutionary Road and TV’s Mad Men, the movie is set in the ‘60s with a washed out, cold, somber palette juxtaposed with black & white retro Italian flashbacks. A handful of flashback scenes are enriched with toned down Technicolor that coincides with the warmth of George and Jim (Goode). Although beautiful to look at, the constant change in scenic tone is schizophrenic. It is too erratic and in fashion terms, it borders on being over-styled.

George and Jim’s romance is a relationship that connects with an audience whether straight or gay (a la Brokeback Mountain). It’s thoughtful, touching and made us see how George was when he still had life in him. When we come back to George’s present, he is solemn, stoic and meandering. (Then again, who wouldn’t be depressed if you lost someone as charming and handsome as Matthew Goode?) He tries to live his life but his heartache constant haunts him and the audience carries this emotional burden with him. This explains the Oscar buzz surrounding Firth. He gives you no choice but to feel his pain. As George, Firth not only acts the part but he ravages it with a silent temperament.

The rest of the ensemble chimes in with brief, yet effecting performances. Moore, laced with an English accent is deliriously beautiful, chatty and pseudo-fabulous as George’s BFF who wants to shag him despite knowing he plays for the same team. She is testament to Ford’s yearning to dress sexy women. Hoult gleams with endearing naiveté as George’s student/kind-of-love-interest. All of the background characters evenly add a different emotional injection into the arteries of the film that give it throbbing pulse.

The entire movie almost looks like an ad for Tom Ford or Gucci –in a good way of course. It is stunningly shot with a discerning eye and has the Ford aesthetic woven throughout the film: George’s thick-rimmed glasses, the finely tailored suits, gorgeous women; and I might be mistaken, but I think Kenny is wearing the same fuzzy Gucci sweater Kurt wore in an episode of Glee.

Above all, it teeters on the line of tasteful and trashy, something that Ford is known for (have you seen some of his ads?). Tasteful in that we see the serene beauty of Firth’s naked body swimming through the water. In other hyper-sexualized incidences, we see an opportunity for it to get really trash (please note the sensual close-ups of mouths throughout the entire film), but Ford pulls back. Isherwood’s grave love story could’ve had the potential to become a mess, but for what the film lacks for in story (and it doesn’t lack much) it makes up for in visual awe.

Throughout the entire movie I was constantly thinking with cynicism, “Tom Ford directed this”. Part of me wanted to find failure because he is crossing into a threshold where he really doesn’t belong. But with a strong cast, poignant story and distinct style, there was hardly any failure to be found – and I think we can thank Mr. Firth for that. Grade: B+