A Single Man by Tom Ford

After seeing the movie, my friend Tom said "It's like a moving catalog to a Gucci photo shoot". And I agree with him 100%. The visual detail and artistry of this movie were superb that totally had Tom Ford's signature on it. Screenplay and direction by the former creative director of Gucci, this movie was a brilliant masterpiece of Tom Ford.

The story was rather simple. It was about the day gay Stanford Professor George Falconer (Colin Firth) decided to kill himself because of a severe broken heart from losing his lover of 16 years Jim (Matthew Goode) to a car accident. As he went about his day planning the suicide and getting his affairs together, memories of Jim juxtapositioned with his day fluidly. Colin Firth showcased a vast array of Oscar worthy emotions in this movie, unlike his role in Pride & Prejudice. The course of the day included interactions with his friend Charley (Julliane Moore) and his student Kenny (Nicholas Hoult), who was intrigued and somewhat infatuated with him. This encounter with Kenny made him realize in the end that there can be life and light after Jim and that he can have the strength to move on contrary to what he thought he can not do. But alas, irony set in when he, at that moment of realizing this, suffered a heart attack.

The story was set in the 1960s in California when smoking, thick eye make up and big ladies hair were in vogue. Some of the scenes felt like a retro modern day photo shoot indeed. The set design and outfit of the characters all looked so 60's yet something that can totally still be in style and fashionable now. The smoky sepia quality to the picture added allure and flair to this film. Even the butt showing skinny dipping scene of Colin and Nicholas was so artfully shot and edited. Colin Firth looked fabulous with his mature handsome face and leaner physique. Nicholas Hoult was so lean and adorable with his boyish California twink gay porn star look. Julliane Moore was ultra chic with her black and white evening wear and fully made up face and hair. Besides the outfits that obviously had Tom Ford's creative input, some lines and sentiments in the movies also echoed the director's thoughts and views as a gay man. There was this line when Professor Falconer was telling his class that it is fear, whether valid or unfounded, of the minority (sexuality, race, religion, etc) that makes the majority to mistreat the minority whom were normally left unnoticed. He added that this minority are just people like us while looking at the direction of two gay looking students. A very subtle scene that I picked up and related to as a gay man.

This movies has moved me visually, acoustically, emotionally and intellectually. Another beautiful 5 star movie that deserves a space in my collections of movies.