A Single Man (2009/Sony DVD)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: B- Film: B
Tom Ford is
a fashion clothes designer who continued the Gucci legacy by saving it and is
one of the premiere names in his field.
When it was reported he would make a motion picture, it was hard to tell
if this would work or just be passable.
The Weinstein Company liked the idea and backed up his directing debut
with his adaptation of Christopher Isherwood’s A Single Man (2009) resulting in a more impressive film than expected.
Colin
Firth is George, a man who cannot stand the loneliness of his life since his
lover passed away. Much pain goes with
this and he is thinking of self-destructing, but he has to go to school and
deal with business as a professor and it is not the day he thinks or expects it
to be. He has some support form his
friend Charley (Julianne Moore in one of her best roles and performances in
years) and finds any interaction he has with anyone tenuous, even if it is an
attractive male.
Isherwood’s
previous work became the basis for film like I Am A Camera, Diane, The Loved One and Cabaret, so eccentricity and isolationism are common themes and
with Ford at the helm, I was impressed and surprised how effective the film was
and in conveying the homosexual isolationism missing form just about all the
Gay New Wave films and most of the bad productions that followed said
wave. Ford can direct and makes a fine
debut here. I wonder if the success of
this film will have him continue a filmmaking career.
The anamorphically
enhanced 2.35 X 1 image was shot in Super 35mm film format by Eduard Grau and
looks good, though Ford changed colors constantly and digitally in post
production and relied too much on fixing things in post when he now realizes he
should have done more in camera. This
looks good here, but can be soft and the color changes can come across as phony
at times. The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix may
be dialogue-based, but there is more of a soundfield than expected and the use
of music and subtle sound effects is a plus.
Abel Korzeniowski is not bad either.
Extras
include a making of featurette and feature length audio commentary by Ford that
is very well done.
- Nicholas Sheffo
