| A Single Man | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Tom Ford |
| Produced by | Tom Ford Andrew Miano Robert Salerno Chris Weitz |
| Screenplay by | Tom Ford David Scearce |
| Based on | A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood |
| Starring | Colin Firth Julianne Moore Matthew Goode Nicholas Hoult |
| Music by | Abel Korzeniowski (Additional music by Shigeru Umebayashi) |
| Cinematography | Eduard Grau |
| Editing by | Joan Sobel |
| Studio | Artina Films Depth of Field Fade to Black |
| Distributed by | The Weinstein Company |
| Release date(s) | September 11, 2009 |
| Running time | 99 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $7 million[1] |
| Box office | $24,964,890[2] |
A Single Man is a 2009 drama film based on the novel of the same name by Christopher Isherwood. It is the first film directed by Tom Ford. The film stars Colin Firth, who was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of George Falconer, a depressed gay British university professor living in Southern California in 1962.
The film premiered on September 11, 2009, at the 66th Venice International Film Festival and went on the film festival circuit. After it screened at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival, The Weinstein Company picked it up for distribution in the United States and Germany. An initial limited run in the United States commenced on December 11, 2009, to qualify it for the 82nd Academy Awards with a wider release in early 2010.[3]
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Taking place over the course of a single day, November 30, 1962, a month after the Cuban missile crisis, A Single Man is the story of George Falconer (Colin Firth), a middle-aged English college professor living in Los Angeles. George dreams that he encounters the body of his longtime partner, Jim (Matthew Goode), at the scene of the car accident that took Jim’s life eight months earlier. After awakening, George delivers a voiceover discussing the pain and depression he has endured since Jim’s death and his intention to commit suicide that evening.
George receives a phone call from his dearest friend, Charley (Julianne Moore), who projects lightheartedness despite her being equally miserable. George goes about his day putting his affairs in order and focusing on the beauty of isolated events, believing he is seeing things for the last time. Throughout, there are flashbacks to George and Jim’s sixteen-year-long relationship.
During the school day George comes into contact with a student, Kenny Potter (Nicholas Hoult), who shows interest in George and disregards conventional boundaries of student-professor discussion. George also forms an unexpected connection with a Spanish male prostitute, Carlos (Jon Kortajarena). That evening George meets Charley for dinner. Though they initially reminisce and amuse themselves by dancing, Charley’s desire for a deeper relationship with George and her failure to understand his relationship with Jim angers George.
George goes to a bar and discovers that Kenny has followed him. They get a round of drinks, go skinny dipping, and then return to George's house and continue drinking. George passes out and wakes up alone in bed with Kenny asleep in another room. George gets up and while watching Kenny discovers that he had fallen asleep holding George's gun, taken from the desktop, to keep George from committing suicide. George locks the gun away and in a closing voiceover explains how he has rediscovered the ability "to feel, rather than think". As he makes peace with his grief, George suffers a heart attack and dies.
Fashion designer Tom Ford, as a first-time director, financed the film himself.[5] The film places emphasis on the culture of the 1960s; the production design is by the same team that designed AMC television's Mad Men, which is set in the same era. Mad Men star Jon Hamm has an uncredited voice cameo as the cousin of Jim, George's lover.[6] The actual house where the character George lives in the movie was designed in 1948 by John Lautner, his first house after leaving Frank Lloyd Wright.[7]
The film was shot in 21 days, according to "The Making Of A Single Man" on the DVD.
An early theatrical poster for A Single Man featured a close-up shot of Colin Firth and Julianne Moore lying side by side, their arms and shoulders touching. This led to speculation that the film and its marketing campaign were being "de-gayed", that the work's gay content and themes were being deleted or diminished to improve its chances of success with a wider audience. A new poster with Moore relocated to the background was issued. The film's original trailer placed more emphasis on the relationship between George and Jim but a re-cut trailer omitted a shot of George and Jim kissing while retaining a kiss between George and Charley. Also deleted were a shot of George staring into a male student's eyes while keeping a shot of his staring into the eyes of a female student, shots of George meeting hustler Carlos outside a liquor store and shots of George and Kenny running shirtless into the ocean.[8]
Speaking of the controversy, Moore said that director Tom Ford expressed concern that the original poster made the film appear to be a romantic comedy and that he ordered that the poster be changed.[9] However Ford, noting he doesn't see the film in terms of gay or straight, said "I don't think the movie's been de-gayed. I have to say that we live in a society that's pretty weird. For example, you can have full-frontal male nudity on HBO, yet in cinema, you can't have naked male buttocks. You can't have men kissing each other without it being considered adult content. So, in order to cut a trailer that can go into broad distribution in theaters, certain things had to be edited out. But it wasn't an intentional attempt to remove the gayness of the movie."[10] Conversely, Colin Firth said, "[The marketing] is deceptive. I don’t think they should do that because there’s nothing to sanitize. It’s a beautiful story of love between two men and I see no point in hiding that. People should see it for what it is."[11] Harvey Weinstein would only say, when asked about the de-gayed poster, "I'm good. You got enough. Thank you."[12] Peter Knegt of indieWire suggested that The Weinstein Company de-gayed the trailer to better the film's chances of receiving Academy Award nominations.[8]
The film has received an overall positive reception from critics, with most reviews singling out Colin Firth's performance. It currently holds an 85% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 175 reviews.[13] Metacritic has compiled an average score of 77 (generally favorable reviews) from 35 critic reviews.[14]
Critics who liked the film include A. V. Club film critic Nathan Rabin, who gave the film an A- score, arguing that "A Single Man is a film of tremendous style wedded to real substance, and rooted in "Firth's affecting lead performance as a man trying to keep it together for one last day after his world has fallen apart."[15]
The Times newspaper of London called it "a thing of heart-stopping beauty . . . There will be critics who will be unable to get past the director’s background, but rest assured: Tom Ford is the real deal."[16] Variety's verdict: "Luminous and treasurable, despite its imperfections. An impressive helming debut for fashion designer Tom Ford."[17]
The film was nominated for the Golden Lion at the 66th Venice International Film Festival and won the festival's third annual Queer Lion.[18] Colin Firth was awarded the Coppa Volpi for Best Actor at the film festival for his performance in the film.[19] He received a BAFTA for best actor.[20] Firth received a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama nomination, a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role nomination, and an Academy Award for Best Actor nomination. For her performance, Julianne Moore was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress in Motion Picture. Abel Korzeniowski was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score.
On January 14, 2010, the film was nominated for, and later won, Outstanding Film - Wide Release at the 21st GLAAD Media Awards.[21]
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