I’m not sure how much I can write about this.
The film is not good.
I like dark subject matter usually. A gay guy loses his lover in a fatal car accident and decides that he is going to kill himself. That kind of appeals to me; there could be a few layers to that. This film just felt a bit moany.
Colin Firth is great in it. That’s the reason I wanted to see it. An Oscar nomination in the Best Actor category for an actor who usually plays the stuttering English idiot - and not as well as Hugh Grant, I might add - I had to give it a go.
I’m not his biggest fan. Lots of women seem to like him for one scene where he swims in a white shirt through a pond and that’s about it - career defining. I thought he was great in Fever Pitch, in fact, he would have been my first choice to play Rob in High Fidelity over John Cusack at the time.
But then again, he makes films like Mamma Mia and St Trinian’s and Bridget Jones and Love Actually...
He is quite brilliant in A SIngle Man, though.
There is a melancholy that permeates everything. This is due, in large part, to the music which does infuse everything with a certain sadness, but it is Firth who shines. I was shocked at just how cool and suave he was. Somehow he was cold and calculated, yet endearing. You felt the pain of losing his partner, his ongoing loneliness, his despair for his lush friend Charley - played perfectly by Julianne Moore and her best British accent.
Even the guy from Skins was shockingly decent.
The film was aweful though. I wasn’t there to watch a great piece of filmmaking - it wasn’t Brokeback Mountain, which fits comfortably as a comparison - I was there for the hype.
Great performance by Colin Firth. But was it great because it was Colin Firth? Could another actor have played this role in his sleep? Is it just because it’s a break from his typecast that we applaud it? Maybe. But I think we should. Maybe he will prove to be a giant in dramatic acting. I see that he has signed up for a drama set in Palestine at the end of World War II. Sounds heavy. But , then again he has also just made the second St. Trinian’s film. Even Russell Brand didn’t bother second time round.
Nothing filmic of worth. Mr Firth does well to break free from that Mr Darcy mantle.
Not worth a second thought. Maybe not even a first viewing.
Rating: 
