A SINGLE MAN (2009)
Date of release - 17 December 2009 Director - Tom Ford Actors and Roles - George (Colin Firth), Charley (Julianne Moore), Kenny (Nicholas Hoult), Jim (Matthew Goode) Nation of Production - USA Budget - $7 million Revenue - $25 million (box office)
Synopsis
In 1962, Los Angeles, George Falconer (Colin Firth) has a nightmare of his partner Jim (Matthew Goode), dead, underneath a car wreck in a snow storm. He awakens abruptly and recalls that his partner is missing from his side because he did die in a car crash 8 months prior. A voiceover acknowledges his depression over the events. His sadness becomes so great that he looks to commit suicide at the end of the day.
As he goes about his day his friend Charley (Julianne Moore) calls to confirm their plans for the evening. To get her off the phone, he agrees to show up. He heads to work and starts noticing the beauty in the smallest things.
Various flashbacks reveal the extent of Jim's relationship with George. They had been together 16 years before his passing, and Jim's family wasn't accepting of their partnership.
At school he encounters a student named Kenny who takes interest in George, inviting him for drinks later that night. George ambiguously leaves the conversation and meets up with Charley. Initially they share a night as friends but George becomes angered when Charley makes her confusion over Jim and George's relationship known.
George goes to a bar and meets with Kenny who followed him there. They drink themselves to a stupor and go skinny dipping. The night ends at George's home where the pair continue to drink. George passes out and wakes up alone in his bed, with Kenny sleeping in another room. He sees that Kenny took his gun to prevent him from committing suicide. Afterwards, George burns his suicide note, reconsidering his choice to take his life. He locks his gun away, at peace with his decision. As he's walking to his bed he dies of a heart attack while having a vision of Jim kiss him goodbye.
Commentary
A Single Man is a character study that explores the life of a deeply depressed man. The story is told linearly, in the span of a day, with occasional flashbacks, revealing the root of his depression. Voiceovers, from the perspective of the protagonist, also encompass a huge part of the movie.
The main character in A Single Man isn't the typical leading man, in fact, he varies in a number of ways. George is a gay man residing in Los Angeles in 1962. Living in such a socially conservative time, proves to be of no immediate concern to his character. George makes no attempt to hide his sexuality as many individuals did in a homophobic society.
Through cinematography, we become intimately exposed to George's life and that creates genuine intrigue for his character. The vulnerability of the shots create this intimacy.
The premise of A Single Man is highlighted by the loss of George's partner, Jim, due to a tragic car accident. After this, he subsequently enters a depressive state. Nightmares of that night haunt his mind, even though he wasn't present at the time of the crash. These visions could be a manifestation of guilt. He witnesses the aftermath of the accident, unharmed, and helplessly lies beside Jim's bloody corpse, staring into lifeless eyes.
In the first 10 minutes of the film, we see George performing regular morning tasks while he narrates and gives insight as to how monotonous he finds life to be without his lover.
Fast cuts, jump cuts and close-ups emphasize the robotic way in which he goes about his day.
With cinematic language the director is showing us that this man is an empty shell. George’s joy has been taken from him, and he views life now as an obligation, rather than a privilege. At the end of his routine, he looks in the mirror and motivates himself to live on in a morbid fashion.
This line is the first we hear from George in real time. Everything before that point had been narrated poetically. It is meaningful because it shows us a stark contrast between how the omniscient George speaks to an audience and how he speaks to himself. In this instance, George hates what he sees in the mirror. The self-loathement is felt powerfully because of Colin Firth’s subtle acting. The voice is completely unlike the romanticized one heard during the voiceover. Colin deliberately adds moodiness to his intonation and drags the sentence, in the same way his character is slugging through life. He speaks one word at a time, lives one day after another.
That morning, George the narrator reveals he will commit suicide. We see him opening up his desk and packing up a gun into his suitcase, confirming this intention. From that moment on, the audience is put on edge, wondering if he'll go through with it.
Being as he is an English professor, literature takes on a significant role in the movie. In the image above, to the right of the screen, the popular novel "After Many a Summer" authored by Aldous Huxley, sits. The themes of the book are similar to that which are overtaking George's life. It deals with a man who fears for his impending death. Ironically enough, in this instance, George is preparing for his certain death. The positioning of this book is deliberate to contrast two distinct point of views.
This novel becomes relevant again in George's classroom. As it turns out, it was required reading for his students. In class he discusses the title of the book and its significance. Albeit his own idealistic convictions and personal interpretation, as it pertains to his depression, make way into his teachings.
During this scene we see shots of George imagining himself drowning that parallel the movies opening montage. The scene in the classroom has a warm filter as opposed to the title credit's blue tint. The day's events have shone a small bit of light into George's never-ending abyss.
Often times depression has been allegorically compared to that same helpless feeling of being trapped in a body of water while your own body, moves in slow motion, trying to survive.
A Single Man's score is an orchestra of violin, sometimes intensifying, other times subdued, depending on George's particular mood. The music is an important piece as it allows the viewer to relate to George that much more.
Supplementing the theme of death, is a theme of time, irrevocably tied to life's finiteness. We see several shots of clocks, representing the acute acknowledgment George has over his impending death. The camera is aware of the clock in a series of close-ups to emphasize that George is listening to the seconds click away.
However, the decision to take his life isn't one he's making lightly, as we see him, in a medium long shot, staring upwards at the time, struggling with the implications of giving in to his mortality.
The critical scene in the movie is a flashback to the night George first finds out about Jim's accident. This moment is the biggest reason for George's present emotional state. Not only do we see his immediate reaction to the news, but we learn more about the couple's back story as it pertains to Jim's family. The news of Jim's death is divulged by a cousin, who also lets George know that he'll be denied admittance to the service. Greater sadness befalls him as he realizes he won't be able to say his final goodbyes to Jim. (The nightmare scene in the beginning starts to make more sense, as it ends with a kiss. Symbolically, this could be George's mind's attempt at some semblance of closure.)
The camerawork in this scene accentuates Colin Firth's brilliant performance. As George processes the news the camera slowly zooms into George, never cutting, entirely in focus as his eyes gloss up with realization. His entire world is closing in on him and the framing makes sure it delivers the same claustrophobic feeling to the audience. George, a man of many words, delivers them in brief sentences.
Although deceased, Jim’s presence isn’t entirely absent from George’s life. Throughout the movie there are short periods of remembrance, where a particular glance takes him to a time where Jim was alive; a fleeting moment of nostalgia.
These scenes reveal a lot in terms of what emotions George is experiencing. When he imagines his past with Jim, the colors on screen explode with vibrancy. The long shot positioned directly after he sees Jim is purposefully baron. Mise-en-scene echoes the impossible distance between the two. The realistic reflection of his backyard on the glass confirms that Jim is only alive in George's memory. Without Jim, his world remains a dull, murky wasteland.
This sudden splash of color, however, isn't unique to Jim. As the story moves forward color is used as a cinematic tool to highlight the things George finds to be beautiful.
Color is vitality in this movie. Every moment that seamlessly transitions into saturated pigments, gives George one more reason to live.
There comes a point wherein he is touched by the color, and his face and background match that of those he is looking at.
This movie has great character development. As mentioned initially, it is a character study and so a drastic change occurs in George's state of mind. During the day he spends time with eclectic people including his good friend, Charley and a bubbly student turned sexual partner, Kenny. The cloud of sadness that envelops him in the beginning starts to dissipate as he finds reasons to live. Sadly, after George decides he wants to keep on living, his heart gives out. A Single Man ends as somber as it begins. George's initial mantra about impending death has ironically presented itself, just as he found peace.
"I always used to tell him that only fools could possibly escape the simple truth that now isn't simply now: it's a cold reminder. One day later than yesterday, one year later than last year, and that sooner or later it will come."
The movie's final line ties in this theme explicitly.
The final shots also relate to the opening scene of the movie. They mirror George's position as he wakes from the nightmare almost exactly. The difference is that in the first instant, George welcomed death. In this last scene George tried to fight it but ultimately succumbed.
