A Single Man

Yesterday afternoon before attending my part-time course at Toronto Image Works, I went to see a film, A Single Man, which several friends insisted that I should go see. It's a great period piece set in the early 1960's, beautifully crafted and well-acted. At times, the film moved me to tears.

Based on the Christopher Isherwood novel of the same name and directed by fashion designer Tom Ford in his directorial debut, this 2009 film stars Colin Firth as the middle-aged protagonist George Falconer, a gay British university professor living in Southern California in 1962. Since the sudden death of his longtime partner, Jim (Matthew Goode), he has struggled to find meaning in his life. Throughout the single day depicted in the film, and narrated from his point of view, George dwells on his past and his seemingly empty future as he prepares for his planned suicide that evening. Before meeting his close friend Charley (Julianne Moore) for dinner, he has unexpected encounters with a Spanish prostitute (Jon Kortajarena) and a young student, Kenny Potter (Nicholas Hoult), who has become fixated on George as a kindred spirit.

The production design was done by the same team that created the production sets in Mad Men, which is also set in the same era.