Hi Gil, I'm a few pages behind. I'm the mother of a 7 year old, and that is where I'm coming from when I say that an R rating seems appropriate to me. I am raising my daughter to see the nice lesbian couple who live next door to us as our great neighbors, and doing my best to have her see gay as one of the normal facets of life (and she does). The gay content of A Single Man is none of the reason I would give it an R rating. Most of the subject matter is very mature - depression, drinking, flirting, contemplation of suicide, teachers having personal relationships with students. It's a very grown up movie.
Thanks for responding! I agree that the film’s subject matter is adult in nature but not more so than many other films that have received a 14A rating. (The title that comes to mind is THE DARK KNIGHT, which is probably not the best example because as I recall, the fact that it received (purchased?) a 14A rating did cause some controversy.) I have no problem with most teenagers being able to see the film without adult supervision, which the 14A rating would allow. Besides, I doubt that many teens would be interested in seeing the film unless they were fans of the British teen series Skins in which Nick Hoult also stars and ironically that show, being British and all, is way more explicit than the film. Of course, gay teens and fashionistas might also be interested which is where I’m coming from, I guess. I want teens, especially the gay ones, to be able to see it without feeling like it’s somehow wrong or titillating.
Anyway, my point is that the ONLY reason A SINGLE MAN received the 18 rating is because of its homosexual content. If George was longing for his dead female lover, passionately kissing her in a flashback, ogling female tennis players, exchanging glances with a Spanish woman and passively flirting with a female student, the film would have been rated 14A, naked buns and all.
Or maybe it was all that enticing cigarette smoking, lol!