A SINGLE MAN (USA 2009) ****
Directed by Tom Ford

Fashion designer Tom Ford hit it super big with his debut feature A SINGLE MAN based on the 60’s Christopher Isherwood (CABARET) novel about love and a gay man’s grief about loss.  The film made the first $1,000,000 deal at the Toronto International Film Festival making Ford a happy man.  Buzz on the film started flying at TIFF after Colin Firth garnered the Best Actor Award at the Best Actor Award early this week. 

Though not perfect a film, Ford’s thoughtful and intelligent film is arguably one of the most moving films of the festival.  50ish Brit professor who now teaches at Stanford, George Falconer (Firth) has just suffered the death of his partner (Mathew Goode) of 16 years.  While pondering suicide (a few subtly humourous scenes included in the process), George has a fling with a stalking student (gorgeous Nicholas Hoult providing appropriate nudity), an ex-love interest and best friend Charley (Julianne Moore) and a Spanish James Dean look-alike rent-boy.  While all this is going on, Ford effectively creates the mood and atmosphere of the gay repression of the times through both the film’s setting and the characters’ dialogue and behaviour. 

Though made up of primarily a few super charged and brilliantly executed set-pieces, Ford’s film has the problem of a smooth flow though the events all take place within a day of George’s life. Needless to say, the man’s wardrobe in the film (some designed by Ford himself) is nothing short of stunning!  A SINGLE MAN is the sexiest film of the year that contains no sex scenes.