''A Single Man'' is a 2009 American
period
Period may refer to:
Common uses
* Era, a length or span of time
* Full stop (or period), a punctuation mark
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Period (music), a concept in musical composition
* Periodic sentence (or rhetorical period), a concept ...
romantic drama film based on the 1964
novel of the same name by
Christopher Isherwood. The
directorial debut
This is a list of film directorial debuts in chronological order. The films and dates referred to are a director's first commercial cinematic release. Many film makers have directed works which were not commercially released, for example early work ...
of fashion designer
Tom Ford
Thomas Carlyle Ford (born August 27, 1961) is an American fashion designer and filmmaker. He launched his eponymous luxury brand in 2005, having previously served as the creative director at Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent. Ford wrote and direct ...
, the film stars
Colin Firth, who was nominated for the
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
34th Toronto International Film Festival,
The Weinstein Company
The Weinstein Company (usually credited or abbreviated as TWC) was an American independent film studio, founded in New York City by Bob and Harvey Weinstein in March 2005. TWC was one of the largest mini-major film studios in North America pri ...
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
The 82nd Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2009 and took place on March 7, 2010, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles beginning at 5:30 p.m ...
with a
wider release in early 2010.
Plot
On November 30, 1962, a month after the
Cuban Missile Crisis, George Falconer is a middle-aged English college professor living in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
. George dreams that he encounters the body of his longtime partner, Jim, at the scene of the car accident that took Jim's life eight months earlier. He bends down to kiss his dead lover. After awakening, George delivers a voiceover discussing the pain and depression he has endured since Jim's death and his intention to end his life that evening.
George receives a phone call from his dearest friend, Charley, who projects lightheartedness despite her also being 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. At times, he recalls his sixteen-year-long relationship with Jim.
During the school day, George comes into contact with a student, Kenny Potter, 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. 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 in bed with Kenny asleep in another room. While watching Kenny, George discovers that he has fallen asleep holding George's gun to keep George from killing himself. George locks the gun away, burns his suicide notes and in a voiceover explains that he has rediscovered the ability "to feel, rather than think". As he makes peace with his grief, George suffers a heart attack and dies, while envisioning Jim appearing and kissing him.
Cast
*
Colin Firth as George Falconer
*
Julianne Moore
Julie Anne Smith (born December 3, 1960), known professionally as Julianne Moore, is an American actress. Prolific in film since the early 1990s, she is particularly known for her portrayals of emotionally troubled women in independent films, ...
as Charlotte "Charley" Roberts
*
Nicholas Hoult
Nicholas Caradoc Hoult (born 7 December 1989) is an English actor. His body of work includes supporting work in big-budget mainstream productions and starring roles in independent projects in both the American and the British film industries ...
as Kenny Potter
*
Matthew Goode
Matthew William Goode (born 3 April 1978) is a British actor. Goode made his screen debut in 2002 with ABC's TV film feature '' Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister''. His breakthrough role was in the romantic comedy ''Chasing Liberty'' (2004), f ...
as Jim
*
Jon Kortajarena
Jon Kortajarena Redruello (born 19 May 1985) is a Spanish fashion model and actor. He has landed advertising campaigns for Just Cavalli, Versace, Giorgio Armani, Bally, Etro, Trussardi, Diesel, Mangano, Lagerfeld, Pepe Jeans but notably ...
as Carlos
* Paulette Lamori as Alva
*
Ryan Simpkins
Ryan Simpkins (born March 25, 1998) is an American actor, known for their performances in films such as '' Pride and Glory'', ''A Single Man'', '' Revolutionary Road'', and '' Fear Street Part Two: 1978''.
Early life and education
Simpkins w ...
as Jennifer Strunk
*
Ginnifer Goodwin
Jennifer Michelle "Ginnifer" Goodwin (born May 22, 1978) is an American actress. She is known for her starring role as Margene Heffman in the HBO drama series ''Big Love'' (2006–2011) and Snow White / Mary Margaret Blanchard in the ABC fan ...
as Mrs. Strunk
*
Teddy Sears
Edward M. Sears (born April 6, 1977) is an American actor, known for his roles as Richard Patrick Woolsley on the TNT legal drama series ''Raising the Bar'', Patrick on the first season of FX anthology horror drama ''American Horror Story'' ( ...
as Mr. Strunk
* Paul Butler as Christopher Strunk
* Aaron Sanders as Tom Strunk
*
Lee Pace
Lee Grinner Pace (born March 25, 1979) is an American actor. He is known for starring as Thranduil the Elvenking in ''The Hobbit'' trilogy and as Joe MacMillan in the AMC period drama television series '' Halt and Catch Fire''. He has also a ...
as Grant Lefanu
*
Erin Daniels as Bank Teller
*
Aline Weber as Lois
Jon Hamm
Jonathan Daniel Hamm (born March 10, 1971) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Don Draper in the period drama television series '' Mad Men'' (2007–2015), for which he won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Televis ...
has an uncredited voice cameo as Jim's cousin Harold Ackerly, who calls George to tell him of Jim's death and that the funeral is "just for family."
Production
Fashion designer
Tom Ford
Thomas Carlyle Ford (born August 27, 1961) is an American fashion designer and filmmaker. He launched his eponymous luxury brand in 2005, having previously served as the creative director at Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent. Ford wrote and direct ...
, as a first-time director, financed the film himself. The film places emphasis on the culture of the 1960s; the production design is by the same team that designed AMC television's ''
Mad Men
''Mad Men'' is an American period drama television series created by Matthew Weiner and produced by Lionsgate Television. It ran on the cable network AMC from July 19, 2007, to May 17, 2015, lasting for seven seasons and 92 episodes. Its f ...
'', which is set in the same era. ''Mad Men'' star
Jon Hamm
Jonathan Daniel Hamm (born March 10, 1971) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Don Draper in the period drama television series '' Mad Men'' (2007–2015), for which he won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Televis ...
has an uncredited voice cameo as the cousin of George's partner, Jim.
The actual house where the character George lives in the film was designed in 1948 by
John Lautner
John Edward Lautner (16 July 1911 – 24 October 1994) was an American architect. Following an apprenticeship in the mid-1930s with the Taliesin Fellowship led by Frank Lloyd Wright, Lautner opened his own practice in 1938, where he worked for th ...
, his first house after leaving
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...
. The film was shot in 21 days (from 3 November to 5 December 2008), according to "The Making of ''A Single Man''", a featurette included on the
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...
release of the film.
Marketing controversy
An early theatrical poster for ''A Single Man'' featured a close-up shot of Colin Firth and Julianne Moore lying side by side, their arms and shoulders touching. This led to speculation that the work's gay content and themes were being deleted or diminished in its marketing materials to improve its chances of success with a wider audience. A new poster with Moore relocated to the background was issued. The film's original trailer placed more emphasis on the relationship between George and Jim but a re-cut trailer omitted a shot of George and Jim kissing while retaining a kiss between George and Charley. Also deleted were shots of George meeting hustler Carlos outside a liquor store, George and Kenny running nude into the ocean, and a shot of George staring into a male student's eyes, while keeping a shot of George staring into the eyes of a female student.
Speaking of the controversy, Moore said that director Tom Ford expressed concern that the original poster made the film appear to be a romantic comedy and that he ordered that the poster be changed. However Ford, noting he does not see the film in terms of gay or straight, said, "I don't think the movie's been de-gayed. I have to say that we live in a society that's pretty weird. For example, you can have full-frontal male nudity on HBO, yet in cinema, you can't have naked male buttocks. You can't have men kissing each other without it being considered adult content. So, in order to cut a trailer that can go into broad distribution in theaters, certain things had to be edited out. But it wasn't an intentional attempt to remove the gayness of the movie." Conversely, Colin Firth said, "
he marketing
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
is deceptive. I don't think they should do that because there's nothing to sanitize. It's a beautiful story of love between two men and I see no point in hiding that. People should see it for what it is."
Harvey Weinstein
Harvey Weinstein (; born March 19, 1952) is an American former film producer and convicted sex offender. He and his brother, Bob Weinstein, co-founded the entertainment company Miramax, which produced several successful independent films includ ...
would only say, when asked about marketing a gay romance, "''
Brokeback Mountain
''Brokeback Mountain'' is a 2005 American neo-Western romantic drama film directed by Ang Lee and produced by Diana Ossana and James Schamus. Adapted from the 1997 short story of the same name by Annie Proulx, the screenplay was written by ...
'' did pretty well. ''
Midnight Cowboy
''Midnight Cowboy'' is a 1969 American drama film, based on the 1965 novel of the same name by James Leo Herlihy. The film was written by Waldo Salt, directed by John Schlesinger, and stars Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight, with notable smaller ...
'' did pretty well. If you know how to market, you can market. There's an audience for it." When pressed about the poster, Weinstein cut off the interview, saying, "I'm good. You got enough. Thank you." Peter Knegt of ''
IndieWire
IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Holl ...
'' suggested that The Weinstein Company "de-gayed" the trailer to better the film's chances of receiving
Academy Award
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
nominations.
Reception
Critical response
''A Single Man'' has received an overall positive reception from critics, with most reviews singling out Colin Firth's performance. It currently holds an 86% "Fresh" rating on
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, based on 192 reviews, and an average rating of 7.4/10, with the site's consensus being that "Though the costumes are beautiful and the art direction impeccable, what stands out most from this debut by fashion designer Tom Ford is the leading performance by Colin Firth."
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
has compiled an average score of 77 (generally favorable reviews) from 35 critic reviews.
Michael Phillips of the ''
Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...
'' wrote "Some films aren't revelations, exactly, but they burrow so deeply into old truths about love and loss and the mess and thrill of life, they seem new anyway"
Bob Mondello of
NPR
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
commented "An exquisite, almost sensual grief suffuses every frame of A Single Man."
Marc Savlov of ''
The Austin Chronicle
''The Austin Chronicle'' is an alternative weekly newspaper published every Thursday in Austin, Texas, United States. The paper is distributed through free news-stands, often at local eateries or coffee houses frequented by its targeted demogr ...
'' wrote "Everything fits perfectly, from titles to fin, but most of all Colin Firth, who dons the role of George like a fine bespoke suit."
Critics who liked the film include ''
The A.V. Club
''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...
'' film critic Nathan Rabin, who gave the film an A− score, arguing that "''A Single Man'' is a film of tremendous style wedded to real substance, and rooted in "Firth's affecting lead performance as a man trying to keep it together for one last day after his world has fallen apart." Critic
Roger Ebert of the ''
Chicago Sun-Times
The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago ...
'' also praised Firth, saying that he "plays George superbly, as a man who prepares a face to meet the faces that he meets. He betrays very little emotion, and certainly his thoughts cannot be read in his eyes."
''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...
'' newspaper of London called the film "a thing of heart-stopping beauty . . . There will be critics who will be unable to get past the director's background, but rest assured: Tom Ford is the real deal."
''Variety'''s verdict: "Luminous and treasurable, despite its imperfections. An impressive helming debut for fashion designer Tom Ford."
Accolades
The film was nominated for the
Golden Lion at the
66th Venice International Film Festival and won the festival's third annual
Queer Lion; Colin Firth was awarded the
Volpi Cup
The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival he ...
for Best Actor at the film festival for his performance in the film.
He also received the
BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Best Actor in a Leading Role is a British Academy Film Award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding leading performance in a film.
Superlatives
Note: ...
.
Additionally, Firth received nominations at the
Golden Globe Awards, the
Screen Actors Guild Awards, and the
Academy Awards
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
. For her performance, Julianne Moore was nominated for the
Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture.
Abel Korzeniowski was nominated for the
Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score
The Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score is a Golden Globe Award presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), an organization of journalists who cover the United States film industry, but are affiliated with publications ...
.
Arianne Phillips
Arianne Phillips (born April 26, 1963) is an American costume designer. Phillips was recognized for her work on the Broadway musical '' Hedwig and the Angry Inch'', starring Neil Patrick Harris, earning her a Tony award nomination for Best Cost ...
was nominated for the
BAFTA Award for Best Costume Design
This is a list of winners and nominees for the BAFTA Award for Best Costume Design, which is presented to costume designers, given out by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* Bri ...
.
The film received the
Grand Prix from the
Belgian Syndicate of Cinema Critics
The Belgian Film Critics Association (french: Union de la critique de cinéma, UCC) is an organization of film critics from publications based in Brussels, Belgium.
History
The Belgian Film Critics Association was founded in the early 1950s in Br ...
. It also won the
GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Film – Wide Release
The GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Film – Wide Release is an annual award that honors films that received a wide release for excellence in the depiction of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) characters and themes. It is one of ...
and was named the AFI's Film of the Year.
Soundtrack
The official soundtrack was released by Silva Screen Records on December 22, 2009. The tracklist consisted of original music composed by
Abel Korzeniowski, operatic arias by
Shigeru Umebayashi
(born February 19, 1951) is a Japanese composer.
Once the leader and bass player of Japan's new wave rock band EX, composer Shigeru Umebayashi began scoring films in 1985 when the band broke up. He has more than 30 Japanese and Chinese film sc ...
, as well as songs featured in the film.
A Single Man (Original Soundtrack) , Light In The Attic Records
/ref>
; Track listing
# "Stillness of the Mind" – Abel Korzeniowski - 3:54
# "Drowning" – Abel Korzeniowski - 1:48
# "Snow" – Abel Korzeniowski - 1:15
# "Becoming George" – Abel Korzeniowski - 3:51
# "George's Waltz" – Shigeru Umebayashi
(born February 19, 1951) is a Japanese composer.
Once the leader and bass player of Japan's new wave rock band EX, composer Shigeru Umebayashi began scoring films in 1985 when the band broke up. He has more than 30 Japanese and Chinese film sc ...
- 1:40
# "Daydreams" – Abel Korzeniowski - 2:16
# "Mescaline" – Abel Korzeniowski - 3:10
# "Going Somewhere" – Abel Korzeniowski - 1:59
# "(Variation On) Scotty Tails Madeleine" – Shigeru Umebayashi - 1:52
# "Carlos" – Shigeru Umebayashi - 1:01
# " La Wally, Act I: Ebben? / Ne Andro Lontana" – Miriam Gauci - 3:29
# " Stormy Weather" – Etta James - 3:10
# "Green Onions
"Green Onions" is an instrumental composition recorded in 1962 by Booker T. & the M.G.'s. Described as "one of the most popular instrumental rock and soul songs ever" and as one of "the most popular R&B instrumentals of its era", the tune is a ...
" – Booker T. & the M.G.'s - 2:54
# "Blue Moon" – Jo Stafford
Jo Elizabeth Stafford (November 12, 1917July 16, 2008) was an American traditional pop music singer, whose career spanned five decades from the late 1930s to the early 1980s. Admired for the purity of her voice, she originally underwent classi ...
- 4:39
# "Swimming" – Abel Korzeniowski - 1:39
# "And Just Like That" – Abel Korzeniowski - 4:53
# "George's Waltz" – Shigeru Umebayashi - 3:18
# "Sunset" – Abel Korzeniowski - 2:59
# "Clock Tick" – Abel Korzeniowski - 2:06
References
Further reading
*
External links
*
*
*
*
*
2009 interview with director Tom Ford on ''A Single Man''
at CharlieRose.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Single Man
2009 films
2009 directorial debut films
2009 drama films
2009 LGBT-related films
American drama films
American LGBT-related films
BAFTA winners (films)
2000s English-language films
Films about death
Films about depression
Films about educators
Films about grieving
Films about suicide
Films based on British novels
Films directed by Tom Ford
Films set in 1962
Films set in Los Angeles
Films shot in Los Angeles
Gay-related films
LGBT-related drama films
LGBT-related controversies in film
The Weinstein Company films
2000s American films