Colin Firth superb in Tom Ford’s ‘A Single Man’

With its sharp black suits, monochrome backdrops and high-cheekboned actors, Tom Ford's A Single Man could easily pass for a high-end commercial for his old boss Gucci. But the fashion designer's notable first film is as substantial as it is seductive. Ford deals with universal themes of love, loss and loneliness with great sensitivity while his leading man, Colin Firth, turns in a superb performance as the bereaved gay professor George Falconer.
 
Based on the novel by Christopher Isherwood, the film opens starkly with a fatal car crash during a snowstorm, in which George's partner of 16 years, Jim (Matthew Goode), is killed. George learns of the accident the following day from a relative, but is banned from attending the funeral. Eight months later George is broken-hearted and desperately lonely. However, as a gay man in 1962 Los Angeles, he finds himself unable to express his grief and decides to take action.
 
A Single Man follows George as he plans his suicide, methodically laying out his funeral clothes and necessary papers. When it comes to shooting himself, he can't bear the thought of blood on the duvet and, in a darkly comic scene, covers it with a sleeping bag.

Ford, former head designer for Gucci, has been criticised by some reviewers for 'over-designing' the film. But the look reflects George's sense of self: tasteful and impeccably turned out, yet restrained. Ford also marks out his directorial territory as a gay man, celebrating the male form as his camera lingers on toned torsos and tanned biceps.
 
Firth's performance - for which he won best actor at the Venice Film Festival and is also Oscar-nominated - is strong enough, too, not to be swamped by the production design. The scenes where he hears of Jim's death by phone - his face wordlessly, visibly crumpling - and is comforted by his former lover Charley (a glamorous Julianne Moore) are heart-wrenching.
 
Set at the height of the Cuban missile crisis, Ford has captured the era's sense of foreboding. There is also the metaphor of time ticking on while George is stuck in the past, dwelling on his lost life with Jim. It is only through his friendship with his student Kenny (Nicholas Hoult) that he is able to gain a sense of moving on.

WHAT THE CRITICS ARE SAYING:Roger Ebert, the Chicago Sun Times: "The first-time director Tom Ford, the famous fashion designer, has been faulted for over-designing the film, but perhaps that misses the point. Perhaps George has over-designed his inner vision."

Manohla Dargis, the New York Times: "Mr Ford's single man might be less common than Isherwood's, a bit too exquisitely dressed. But with Mr Firth, Mr Ford has created a gay man troubled by ordinary grief and haunted by joy, a man apart and yet like any other."

Deborah Young, Hollywood Reporter: "The theme of the search for meaning after a great loss is developed with great sensitivity thanks to Colin Firth's moving performance in the main role - for which he won the best actor prize here - and should help the film go beyond gay audiences to attract the more mainstream attention of "Brokeback Mountain" and "Far From Heaven."

Betsy Sharkey, the Los Angeles Times: "We're always looking for those performances that truly define an actor, where we can sit back and simply watch the talent soar. For Colin Firth, A Single Man is that film." ·