Review: A Single Man

Review: A Single Man

Rating: ***

Nonna's Rating: $$$

Rotten Tomatoes: 83%

There is something about this movie that I found very unsettling. I think it was the lighting. It has that overexposed look of color photos from the 60s. Washed out Kodachrome. Tom Ford's direction, the costumes, the makeup, the editing, the art direction -- all whisked me back almost 50 years. Whisked me back to the time when two "confirmed bachelors" would live together and everyone would tacitly agree just to ignore the fact.

Colin Firth's performance as George is the reason to see this film. He manages to portray a deeply depressed human being without dragging the film into his personal black hole. There are enough humor, enough pathos, and enough subtlety to draw us into the sad story of this meticulous man born too early.

And, oh yes, the other unsettling thing was the little girl with the long skinny legs who lived next door to George -- an animated Diane Arbus portrait if ever I saw one.

Nonna's Ratings:

$$$$ = Worth paying the Friday evening price
$$$= Worth paying the Matinee price
$$= Worth a rental
$ = Wait for cable
# = Skip it