Archive notice: This article was originally published on February 22, 2010. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
He received his first BAFTA Award at yesterday’s ceremony in London from the previous year’s winner, Kate Winslet.
Synopsis:
One phone call – that is all it takes to shatter the world of George Falconer (COLIN FIRTH), a British professor in Los Angeles in the early 1960s. Since learning by telephone of the accidental death of his long-term partner Jim (MATTHEW GOODE), the intense happiness that once filled their shared home has disappeared, and the future is a dark, unimaginable void for George. While the Cuban Missile Crisis or elegant cocktail parties shape everyday life around him, his own life is dominated by grief and loneliness. With gin and cigarettes, music and conversation, George’s beautiful best friend Charley (JULIANNE MOORE) tries to offer comfort and joy to the desperate man.
On the very day George intends to surrender to sadness and leave everything behind, the young and inquisitive student Kenny (NICHOLAS HOULT) recognises a kindred spirit in him and seeks his company. Very slowly and tentatively, George begins to see the faded world around him in a new light again. Whether in the smile of a little girl, the sun-drenched autumn sky or an attractive chance acquaintance, he rediscovers beauty in life’s small things – and Kenny crosses his path once more.
With A SINGLE MAN, his debut as a feature-film director, Tom Ford has immediately created a film whose beauty and sensitivity are unparalleled. Based on the novel by Christopher Isherwood, the celebrated fashion designer tells a moving story in breathtakingly elegant images about the enduring power of love, the tragedy of loneliness and the significance of life’s seemingly small moments.
As the protagonist and title character, Colin Firth (“Bridget Jones”) shines with a nuanced and deeply impressive performance that earned him, among numerous other awards, the Coppa Volpi acting prize at the Venice Film Festival and an Oscar® nomination for Best Actor. He is supported by a high-calibre ensemble that, alongside the incomparable Julianne Moore (“The Hours”), also includes Matthew Goode (“Match Point”) and Nicholas Hoult (“About a Boy”). The powerful music is by up-and-coming composer Abel Korzeniowski (“Battle for Terra”).
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