- It seemed odd to me that it’s so difficult to get funding for certain kinds of films in Hollywood and yet apparently people are happy to throw millions of dollars at fashion designers to direct random vanity projects. This is weird to me, especially given that the Weinsteins are apparently hemorrhaging money right now.
- The trailer for this film is one of my favourites from this year and it was incredibly successful for me because there was no dialogue in it. Tom Ford shoots this movie with a sublime fetishistic aesthetic that might actually have been stronger as a series of juxtaposed images paired with a metronome score, something that might be better suited to an art gallery than a movie theatre. The comparisons to perfume commercials are not necessarily unwarranted from a visual point of view, but I don’t think the movie ever lapses into the hilarious nonsensical randomness you might get from any of those classic Chanel commercials from the 1990s.
- Colin Firth looked weirdly like Al Gore every time the camera caught his reflection in a mirror. That aside, it’s nice for him to not be the disgruntled and anti-social love interest for once. I am fan of him in this.
- Julianne Moore is a fabulous actor. I forget how much I like her unless she shows up in something and I have no idea why I never think of her when I’m thinking of Cate and Kate and the upper echelon of Fabulous Women in Hollywood. She doesn’t have that much screen time but she does a lot with what she has; she’s desperately tragic for having been born too early to really get in on the whole Swinging London thing that was to come several years down the road.
- Since this movie fits nicely into the 1955-1962 niche, a.k.a. quite possibly my favourite era in history, I naturally fell all over myself about the costumes and set design. George’s and Jim’s house is absolutely OUTSTANDING and beautiful. I read somewhere that the Mad Men people were responsible for this, so this makes perfect sense. All I could think of was how horrifically expensive that house would be on today’s market but they just don’t make them like that anymore.
- I liked the straightforward way the gay relationships were dealt with. The relationships themselves could be complex at times, but the way they were depicted was not stereotypical, salacious, or provocative for the purpose of causing a buzz for the film. There’s nothing out of the ordinary about George and Jim, and not much that sets them apart from any other couple. It’s the kind of average, almost monotonous gaze that filmmakers usually reserve for heterosexual couples on screen. We get occasional glimpses into how their friends and neighbours might view their relationship in the context of 1962 prejudices — which obviously no longer exist in this Modern Age!! — but there’s never an apologetic or shameful moment between George and Jim and it’s pretty refreshing.
- It’s not in the credits, but I’m 87% sure it’s John Hamm who calls Colin Firth to tell him that Matthew Goode has died.
- So that’s what happened to the kid from About A Boy. Last I saw of him anywhere, he was going through a particularly heavy teenage goth phase.
- I did not laugh so much as I did during the scene where George was trying to kill himself. I was amused at the irony of him trying to find a comfortable position for his pillow while he was trying to put a gun in his mouth, but when he crawled into the sleeping bag in order to minimize the mess of having his brains splattered everywhere, I nearly died laughing. It was a very welcome moment of levity into an otherwise serious scene.
- The scene where George is at the bank and gets interrupted by his toe-tapping nine year-old neighbour felt vaguely paedophiliac to me. Once they started talking it was less weird, but there was something unsettling about the way the camera panned from her feet upwards.
- It’s sort of depressing that people no longer have their own personalized stationery.
- There were no previews shown before this movie. The trailers are my favourite part!
A Single Man
Tom Ford certainly enjoys his Technicolor™ moments.
IMDB Plot Synopsis A story that centers on an English professor who, after the sudden death of his partner tries to go about his typical day in Los Angeles.
Hi! I’m a big fan of your site. Just wanted to add that Nicholas Hoult (“About a Boy”) was the star of the First Generation of the excellent British drama/comedy “Skins”. I recommend checking it out, though I must warn you, it is completely absurd at times. Very British.
Cool, thanks Shannon!