A Single Man (2009)
A Single Man is a 2009 drama film based on the novel of the same name by Christopher Isherwood. It is the first film directed by Tom Ford. The film stars Colin Firth, who was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of George Falconer, a depressed gay British university professor living in Southern California in 1962.
The film premiered on September 11, 2009, at the 66th Venice International Film Festival and went on the film festival circuit. After it screened at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival, The Weinstein Company picked it up for distribution in the United States and Germany. An initial limited run in the United States commenced on December 11, 2009, to qualify it for the 82nd Academy Awards with a wider release in early 2010.
Taking place over the course of a single day, November 30, 1962, a month after the Cuban missile crisis, A Single Man is the story of George Falconer (Colin Firth), a middle-aged English college professor living in Los Angeles. George dreams that he encounters the body of his longtime partner, Jim (Matthew Goode), at the scene of the car accident that took Jim’s life eight months earlier. After awakening, George delivers a voiceover discussing the pain and depression he has endured since Jim’s death and his intention to commit suicide that evening.
George receives a phone call from his dearest friend, Charley (Julianne Moore), who projects lightheartedness despite her being equally miserable. George goes about his day putting his affairs in order and focusing on the beauty of isolated events, believing he is seeing things for the last time. Throughout, there are flashbacks to George and Jim’s sixteen-year-long relationship.
During the school day George comes into contact with a student, Kenny Potter (Nicholas Hoult), who shows interest in George and disregards conventional boundaries of student-professor discussion. George also forms an unexpected connection with a Spanish male prostitute, Carlos (Jon Kortajarena). That evening George meets Charley for dinner. Though they initially reminisce and amuse themselves by dancing, Charley’s desire for a deeper relationship with George and her failure to understand his relationship with Jim angers George.
George goes to a bar and discovers that Kenny has followed him. They get a round of drinks, go skinny dipping, and then return to George’s house and continue drinking. George passes out and wakes up alone in bed with Kenny asleep in another room. George gets up and while watching Kenny discovers that he had fallen asleep holding George’s gun, taken from the desktop, to keep George from committing suicide. George locks the gun away and in a closing voiceover explains how he has rediscovered the ability “to feel, rather than think.” As he makes peace with his grief, George suffers a heart attack and dies.
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