wcbe: : A Single Man (2009-12-17)

"Who knows the secrets of the human heart?" The Crying Game

George (Colin Firth) is a gay middle-aged English professor from England in the 1960's, who has lost his lover. True to the title, he is alone, and many frames depict his isolation from the community (classroom shots have him separate from the students, who sit in arena seats at a studied distance, and most shots are of him alone) and his private grief (extreme close-ups of his lover's body or private moments of dreamlike reverie about his romance).

Although the film's dramatic highlights involve George's "dance" with a young student, Kenny (Nicholas Hoult), who is pursuing him romantically, the real pleasure is seeing a fine actor in the role of a lifetime. Firth moves his face sparingly, but when he expresses, that feeling is immediately translatable. He is a master of subtlety.

Not to be dismissed are his scenes with former lover Charley (Julianne Moore), which display both actors' smooth transition between deep affection and the reality that heterosexual love is no longer possible for him. Charley is a modern lady who can take the rejection, but the idea is central to experiencing the price all pay who enter into the modern arena of love.

First-time director Tom Ford, a fashion designer, does an effective job of connecting impressionistic shots with the overall theme. Some might object that the many artsy shots may be too precious as he too hard tries to be a high-class first time director. I happen to like the artful approach because those impressions are usually all we have to assess the interior life of one as private as George.

Ford is visual by trade: whatever he can do to make film even more artful is welcome with this critic.