Director/ Producer: Tom Ford

Writer: Tom Ford

DVD and Blu-ray release date: June 7 2010

Studio: Icon Home Entertainment

Number of discs: 1

Price: From £10.99

Running Time: 97/101 mins

Certificate: 12

Starring: Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, Nicholas Hoult, Matthew Goode

American fashion designer, Tom Ford, a name synonymous with Gucci makes his highly anticipated film debut with A Single Man, based upon Christopher Isherwood’s novel.

English college professor George finds life difficult after his lover of 19 years, Jim (Matthew Goode), is killed in a car crash. The fact Jim’s parents still refuse to admit their dead son’s sexuality and fail to invite George to the funeral adds insult to injury. He only discovers his lover has died when one of Jim’s cousins “sees fit” to phone him.

Unable to move on with his life and forget the domestic bliss he shared with Jim, A Single Man is full of the pain of flashbacked memories, showing the couple at the beach or at home amused by their neighbour’s precocious son being urinated on by the family dog.

Set in Los Angeles in the 1960s, George is acutely aware that his sexuality remains misunderstood and viewed as a “hidden threat”. Even his best-friend, Charley is unable to accept or understand, still hankering for his love and comparing her husband of nine years leaving her and her no longer dependent child flying the coop to his ordeal.

Views of family scenes in George’s next-door neighbour’s garden, remind him of what he will never have and Charley, of what she has already had. Unable to foresee any future without Jim, A Single Man follows the events in one day eight months after his death as George prepares to commit suicide.

While A Single Man is full of overly indulgent lingering shots, Ford’s exploration of grief subtly injects humour through George’s obsession with tidiness, shown in his very considered suicide plan – George lays out all his important documents for whoever finds him, undergoes a series of comical trial-runs and fails to shoot himself inside a sleeping bag, in order to avoid blood splatters.

What should be an unhappy ending is strangely uplifting as after a self-confessed epiphany, George finally makes peace with his grief and a decision – the only socially acceptable one – but still unexpectedly gets what he had yearned for.

A rather flaky-looking Julianne Moore gives a sympathetic performance playing drama queen Charley, trapped by her own unacceptance and desperately in love with the unobtainable while Colin Firth finally moves away from his typecast lovable charmer roles to shine as George.

Nicholas Hoult (Skins, About a Boy) plays one of George’s students, Kenny, a squeaky clean all-American wonder-boy having serious doubts about his existence, while viewers may be experiencing similar feelings about his accent. Through Kenny and fellow student, Maria, Ford suggests history is to repeat itself in the doomed but addictive relationship of Charley and George.

More about suffering and loss, A Single Man is not a “gay film” but a captivating and highly moving piece of art.

***

Special Features:

  • Commentary with Producer/Director Tom Ford
  • The Making of A Single Man
  • MovieIQ +sync and BD-Live connect you to real-time information on the cast, music, trivia and more while watching the movie! (Blu-ray only)