Getting an indie film made these days is next to impossible. Getting an indie film made that’s an adaptation of a classic gay novel is practically a miracle. This year’s gay Christmas miracle is
A Single Man (out December 11; see our contest to
win passes), based on Christopher Isherwood’s 1964
book. And the miracle worker who made it happen is
Tom Ford.
No doubt, Ford’s considerable celebrity paved the way, and the former Gucci designer’s distinctive eye has given the film a sumptuous, perfume commercial-perfect veneer. But beneath that self-aware, unblemished surface lies a story told with emotional truth, depth and despair. It’s 1962 in Los Angeles and George (
Colin Firth), a professor, has just lost his longtime lover (
Matthew Goode). Kenny (
Nicholas Hoult), his student, is rather obsessed with George, and Charlotte (
Julianne Moore) still carries a torch for her old friend.
We’ve lost count of how many times she has played a liquor-addled, midcentury mess of a woman, but Moore brings her tangle of hair and big sunglasses to bear again impeccably. Plenty of details from Isherwood’s novel — no easy text to adapt — are left out, but there’s still plenty to savor. Like so many stylish, successful gay men,
A Single Man looks perfect, but patiently peel away the layers and you’ll find a secret, complex inner life.
A Single Man
opens December 11 in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, and wider December 25, from The Weinstein Company.
