Jim (Matthew Goode) and George (Colin Firth) in Tom Ford's A Single Man.Heart attacks
By John Esther
A gala selection at AFI Fest 2009, fashion designer-turned-filmmaker Tom Ford's adaptation of Christopher Isherwood's novel of the same name is charged with anger, angst, ego and eroticism.
A US premiere, after credits continue-um with a naked male underwater, A Single Man shifts in a dreamlike state blending eros and thanatos as George (Colin Firth) walks toward a wide-eyed dead Jim (Matthew Goode) laying in bloody snow and kisses him. It is a haunting scene of love and lost shattered by the dreamer denied as George wakes up to his miserable existence.
Miserable existence? On the surface, George seems to have his life in order: money, style, architecture, art and some solitude. Yet this means little to George.
In one of the most gripping film scenes this year, we quickly discover George has lost the love of his life, Jim. He is paralyzed by the loss. Being what they and the times were, the man "light in the loafers" is not permitted to attend Jim's funeral. His mourning must be done alone.
Set over the course of a day, we watch George losing his grip with the present through flashbacks of his past. Stricken by what he no longer has, George is incapable of realizing what the future could hold. With young men flirting with him under the golden California sun, fate may have something good in store, but uptight, determined George continues to plan his demise. The former Londoner who now lives in Los Angeles accepts the inevitability of death, but why, or so why not, hurry up with it?
Although minutely flawed with pretentiousness and filled with a ghastly glamorization of cigarette smoking (plus I would like to see the car crash scene again -- in retrospect, the model of the car seems more recent than 1962), Ford's feature directorial debut bursts with radiant images of love, loss and lust in rather equal measures. Rather than making our lives hell, sometimes other people are the only heaven we will ever know and Ford designs this sentiment like a fine suit. (A Single Man reminds one a lot of last year's The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.)
Firth's portrayal of a man of his times and times loves lost is brilliant. It is probably the best performance I have seen this year (I imagine he had a little help from Isherwood's novel if not Isherwood's longtime lover, Don Bachardy, as well). Co-starring Julianne Moore and Nicholas Hoult. (Recommended)
(A Single Man is scheduled to screen Nov. 5, 7 p.m. at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, 6925 Hollywood Blvd. For more information: 866/AFI-FEST; www.afi.com)
