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A Single Man
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Currently
4/5 Stars.
Movies.ie Critic Review
Firth plays George, still reeling over the recent death of his lover, Jim (Goode), as he wanders the streets of LA for what he plans on being his final day. Along the way, he plays it just like any other day – teaching his English class; bantering with the neighbours; half-heartedly arguing with a fellow professor about the Cuban Missile Crisis. Only the wide-eyed approach of a handsome young student (Hoult) stirs George from his sleepwalk of a day. Dinner that evening with an old friend (Moore) sees him fight off once again a drunken proposal of a heterosexual twilight together.
THE VERDICT: Proving that he's much, much more than a sweet forlorn face that drives the ladies wild, Colin Firth here delivers perhaps his finest performance yet. Having picked up a Best Actor gong at Venice, Firth also received a Golden Globe nomination, and is now, for the first time, in the running for an Oscar.
Based on Christopher Isherwood's acclaimed 1964 novel (regarded by Edmund White as “one of the first and best novels of the modern gay liberation movement”), director Tom Ford – the fashion designer who initially co-wrote the screen adaptation with David Scearce before going it alone - clearly relishes being able to recreate a 1960s ideal here when it comes to the fashions and the look of the times – sometimes to the film's detriment. This is worth seeing though even just for Firth's performance alone.
Review By Paul Byrne
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Currently
4/5 Stars.
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