I finally saw
A Single Man this past Friday!
Much rambling and
Spoilers! Spoilers! Spoilers! ahead...
Alright, I walked out of the theatre thinking: "It was good. Ok. Good movie." and nothing more because I guess I was still cold from the ending. But then, thinking about it a day later, I realised I actually loved it. Here are a few reasons why:
- The film felt like the visual representation of a vivid, sensual, somber poem. Like everyone else has probably mentioned, I loved the use of colors (bright or bleak) to convey George's moods.
- Colin Firth. Colin Firth. His acting was superb. I thought the casting was great for all the main characters, but Colin Firth especially blew me away.
The scene where he gets the call about his partner Jim's death, followed by
"the service is for family only" - His anguish is tangible in this scene and it pretty much slayed me.
- Matthew Goode. There is something about his face that expresses openness and innocence and longing all at the same time. I have no idea how he does it but I love it. The
"I think I'm taken" scene is one of my favorites.
- Nicholas Hoult. Is he seriously the kid from "About a boy"? lol. I would never have guessed. I really loved his portrayal of Kenny. Kenny's encounters with George were so intriguing because aside from the obvious sexual tension between the two, every time they looked at each other, you could see so many more questions than answers in their eyes. Fantastic exchange between the two of them.
- Julianne Moore. Great job of portraying needy, clingy Charlotte. I sympathised with Charley to a point, even though she mostly irritated me.
- I squeed when I saw the bank teller lady (played by Erin Daniels) - she was only one of my favorite characters from The L Word. ;-)
The morning after I saw the movie, my gf (who hasn't seen it yet) asked me what the movie was about and what I thought of it. I gave her a fairly detailed gist of it and how I had hoped for a different ending (much like how I felt after watching BBM). She said - "At least the last hours of his life were happy and he didn't go the way he was planning to all along. Much better to go out the way he did, don't you think?". I hadn't really thought about it like that. And I had to agree.
I may go back for another viewing actually.