Review of A Single Man (2009) by Matt P — 06 Jul 2011

When English college professor George Falconer loses his long-time partner to a car accident, he struggles to live the life he and his partner were carrying on. Unable to cope with the grief of his loved partner, he regularly contemplates and even attempts suicide and shows lack of interest in his daily job.

The English professor, played by Colin Firth feels as if his "kind" is in a minority. Lecturing to a placid-faced class about minorities in America. Not only is George an Englishman living in 1960s Los Angeles, he'd also a homosexual looking for some truth and love he feels he deserves.

Through a series of outstanding camera work and direction (such as the beautiful score), performances and compelling story, "A Single Man" turns out to be one of the best movies of the late new decade.

Seen through the eyes of George, and through a day in the life sort of thing, we feel his grief, his strange passion he once had for his partner (Matthew Goode). He's hurting on the inside, and not even a dinner with an old friend (Julianne Moore) can cheer him up.

It's a rather depressing film, and the subject material makes it interesting because it's a type of drama that hasn't been done yet in this way. Some of the scenes involve George either narrating with sharp violin music, fake-shooting a neighbor in slow-mo as he drives by, or speaking with his newfound friend (played by Nicholas Hault) and using colors as the simplest way of expressing how he feels (according to George, blue means spiritualism, red means fury, George picks yellow when his friend buys him a pencil-sharpener).

"A Single Man" plays out like an Alfred Hitchcock movie. There's deep, DEEP symbolism in the use of color, not to mention a blue lit "Psycho" snap-shot on one scenes. Slow moving scenes and well-picked costuming make this movie a sympathetic, sad journey through the mind of one lost soul.