A Single Man (2009) or, Tom Ford's Should I Stay or Should I Go?

10/14/2013

A Single Man (2009) or, Tom Ford's Should I Stay or Should I Go?

♥♥♥♥

Stars Colin Firth and Julianne Moore look stylish on the poster for Tom Ford's A Single Man

1962: George is struggling with grief after his partner Jim's death. While the Cuba crisis is threatening world peace outside, George wants to shoot himself. But different people get in the way.

A Single Man is written by David Scearce (Measure of a Man (2018)) and debuting great Texan co-writer/director Tom Ford (Nocturnal Animals (2016)), adapting the same-titled 1964 novel by Christopher Isherwood (Down There on a Visit (1962)).

Firstly, the problems in fashion designer Ford's first entry into the world of filmmaking: Structurally, because we first get to know a great many things about George's loss, which could have been saved for later, to hit us with a larger force; especially since the film is not told in a linear style anyway. The use of color to illustrate life throughout the film seems trite and banal, just as part of the message of A Single Man, (live each day etc.) Finally there's the problem of Ford's aesthetics: Nearly every one in the film comments on how awful George looks, when, in fact, he couldn't look more stylish and spectacular. He is also surrounded by continually wildly attractive supermodel-looking people. These are, of course, the faults of a fashion designer who enters into filmmaking, thinking that his film must be as stylish as his fashion. With A Single Man in some periods you almost get the sense at times that the film serves as a prolonged commercial for Ford's fashion.
So what's so good about A Single Man as to make it succeed anyway then?
The film is a gay love story told without inhibitions, and without the sexual preference being the central issue in it. There's also some really fine, real scenes between the immersive, Oscar-nominated Colin Firth (The King's Speech (2010)) in the lead and Julianne Moore (The Hours (2002)) showing her very best side as George's old friend. Matthew Goode (Allied (2016)) and Nicholas Hoult (The Weather Man (2005)) are also wholly lovely in the film.
A Single Man has a boring end, and it is generally a bit overrated, but I still can't but embrace it in spite of its flaws.

Related post:

Tom Ford: Nocturnal Animals (2016) - T. Ford achieves greatness with plot-driven, stylish crime drama

Watch a 3-minute clip from the film here

Cost: 7 mil. $
Box office: 24.9 mil. $
= Big hit (returned 3.55 times its cost)

[A Single Man premiered 11 September (Venice Film Festival) and runs 100 minutes. Shooting took 21 days in California, including Los Angeles. The film opened #21 to a 217k $ first weekend in 9 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #17 and in 353 theaters (different weeks), grossing 9.1 mil. $ (36.5 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 4 mil. $ (16.1 %) and Germany with 1.6 mil. $ (6.4 %). The film was nominated for 1 Oscar: Best Actor (Firth), lost to Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart. It won 1/2 BAFTA nominations, an AFI award, was nominated for 3 Independent Spirit awards, won 2 prizes in Venice, and was nominated for 3 Golden Globes, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 3/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. Ford returned with Nocturnal Animals (2016). Firth returned in A Chrismas Carol (2009); Moore in Chloe (2009). A Single Man is certified fresh at 86 % with a 7.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of A Single Man?

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

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10/14/2013

A Single Man (2009) or, Tom Ford's Should I Stay or Should I Go?

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