Reviews - A Single Man at TIFF

Ghost Writer: Michele A.

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*SPOILER WARNING*

5 out of 5 shovels

Tom Ford, known for designing beautiful things, has made a beautiful first film starring a beautiful man, Colin Firth.

I was fortunate to see this film at the North American premiere in Toronto on Monday night, September 14, and again on Wednesday morning.

We knew something was up at the Isabel Bader theater Monday night. We had tickets we had purchased the first day they went on sale and the screening (in a small theater which seats only around 450) was "rush only." When we got there, there were only a few people on the ticketholders' line and loads of people on the rush line (that's the line for those who don't have tickets but hope to get in at the last minute if all ticketholders don't show up).

When the screening was about to start, the ticketholders' line was still much shorter than the rush line - most unusual. Well, just before they let us in, the "swarm" arrived. A huge crowd of industry people were let in first - these were representatives from the major distributors there to view this film, a true hot property since it wowed Venice a few days earlier with Colin Firth taking home the Best Actor nod. (In fact, when the person who introduced the film gave the customary "turn off all cell phones" warning, she smiled and added "AND all the Blackberries.")

If you've read the excellent book by Christopher Isherwood (who also wrote the Berlin stories on which Cabaret was based), you pretty much know the plot. George Falconer, played by Colin Firth, is a gay British professor in his early 50's who teaches at a university in southern California. It takes place in November 1962 (the Cuban missile crisis playing ominously in the background), and George's younger lover, Jim (Matthew Goode) was killed in a car accident eight months previously. There are a few brief scenes of their life together - they had been together for 16 years.

In one perfect scene, they are reclining shoeless on opposite ends of the sofa, facing each other, their dog between them. Their personalities are humorously expressed in their reading material, each gently mocking the other's choice. (George is reading Metamorphosis, Jim is reading Breakfast at Tiffany's). They argue comically over whose turn it is to change the record on the turntable, Jim gets up in deference to George's seniority (he lovingly calls him "old man"), and the scene ends in a chaste kiss. They are comfortable together, as would be expected in a couple married 16 years - not legally, of course.

The book had to be difficult to transfer to film, as so much of the narrative was in George's thoughts. Colin Firth has always been skilled in expressing emotion with facial expressions, and this film uses those skills to full effect. You simply can't take your eyes off him, particularly during the flashback scene where George learns of his partner's death on the telephone. The voice on the other end (one of Jim's cousins) matter-of-factly tells him that Jim, and their dogs, were killed in an accident while visiting family. Jim's parents do not know that the cousin has made the call; if it were up to them, George would not be informed. And, most heartbreakingly, George's wish to attend the funeral is rebuffed, as it is for "family only." Anyone, of any sexual persuasion, who has ever loved and lost and grieved can identify with George.

The art design, the kitschy '60s sets, the small details and nuances of behavior and physical appearance, are all so memorable, yet so fleeting and seamless that I found so much new in the second screening that I hadn't noticed in the first. There are some priceless scenes of the fastidious George interacting with neighborhood children (one precocious little girl tells him that her dad says George is "light in your loafers, but you don't even wear loafers.") Homosexuality, in the early 60's, is something that people know about, but certainly don't talk about overtly. George is an outsider in his world, and an outsider who is alone, now that Jim is gone.

He does have a female friend, fellow British expat Charlotte ("Charley"), brilliantly played by Julianne Moore. She is a divorcee who drinks too much, laughs too loudly, dresses flamboyantly and carries a torch for George, based on a long-ago experimental fling. George enjoys her company - one senses she is the only friend he has who knows what he is - and is firm but kind in putting off her advances. Their scene together - dancing and cavorting - is one of the film's highlights.

Impassive on the outside, heart breaking on the inside, George goes about the business of his day, planning for it to be his last. He thinks that no possibility of joy remains for him, and it is time to check out. Throughout the film we see him making serio-comic preparations for his suicide, getting his affairs in order, laying out his clothing (with a note next to his tie stating that it should be tied in a Windsor knot - Windsor being underlined. Bravo, Tom Ford!)

George connects with two others during the course of the day - a Latino James Dean-wannabe hustler (in a scene more significant for what doesn't happen than for what does) and a flirtatious male student from one of his classes (played by Nic Hoult). The encounter with the student leads to a late-night frolic in the surf, tying in with the scene that plays over the opening credits. This opens George to the possibility of happiness, making the film's climax even more moving.

This is a film you will want to see more than once. I've already seen it twice, and I wish I could see it again. Colin Firth is simply magnificent - it is the role of a lifetime for him. All the Oscar talk is richly deserved, and I hope it comes to fruition.

For its near perfection, I give this film 5 shovels.