A Hit Single

In last year's Oscar shuffle, many critics were praising Colin Firth's performance in a movie called A Single Man. They'd say in the same breath that Jeff Bridges was a shoo-in to win the Best Actor Oscar anyway (and he did), but it seemed to be in a sort of "sorry, you just got nominated in the wrong year, Colin," sort of way. It got me a bit curious about the movie.

Set in the early 1960s, around the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, A Single Man is the story of a gay man, a college professor, whose partner of 16 years was recently killed in an accident. The movie deals with his grieving process.

You'd think that the movie would have a lot to say on the rights of a gay couple, and the even greater challenges that would be placed on that couple living fifty years ago. And of course, that does play heavily into things. But what really struck me about the film is how very secondary all of that seemed. More than anything, the film is just a powerful look at dealing with the loss of a spouse -- that core more than any of the particulars.

Colin Firth is indeed excellent. It's a very layered, very subtle performance. There are emotions we see on the surface. There are thoughts the character is having that he's hiding from the audience. There are thoughts and emotions that we see, but that the character is having to hide from the world around him. And myriad combinations of all that. It requires tremendous specificity of an actor to be able to nail any of that. That Colin Firth does it all in one film is extraordinary.

That said, the pace of the movie is still rather slow at times. The direction of the film is rather workmanlike, so much so that the handful of moments that break the mold scream "artistic statement!" in a way that doesn't complement the rest of the proceedings.

But regardless of any shortcomings, it's worth seeing if you're a fan of good acting. This really was a fantastic performance by Colin Firth (and Julianne Moore is pretty good too), and it's the major factor in my rating the film a B-.