Colin Firth was last on our screens as a stoic, grieving husband and father only a few months ago in Michael Winterbottom’s wonderful family drama/postcard from Italy Genova. In A Single Man, as with Winterbottom’s film, Firth’s character loses his partner in the opening scenes, but this is an entirely different picture of grief.

Anxiety over what the future holds courses through A Single Man. It’s 1962 in Los Angeles – the world is changing, Soviet missiles are poised for launch – and gay college professor George Falconer (Firth) is facing the prospect that there’s no way forward. His 16-year relationship with Jim (Matthew Goode) was cut tragically short six months ago and he’s still hurting, profoundly and deeply. On the single day on which A Single Man is set, we are given the distinct impression that George has some sort of plan to leave his past behind him, once and for all.  

A Single Man follows George over a series of encounters, some expected, some unexpected. There’s Kenny (Nicholas Hoult from Skins), the dreamy-eyed student who has taken a shining to him; Carlos, a Spanish rent-boy he meets outside a liquor store; and George’s close friend Charlotte (Julianne Moore in a brief but spirited role), a disaster area with a bouffant. For the most part though, George is enclosed in the swirling mist of his own private thoughts and recollections, which only serve to remind him of his aloneness. One of the characters in the film laments that we’re all sealed within our own bodies, and this seems to apply to George more than anybody.  

Tom Ford adapted the screenplay from the novel of the same name by Christopher Isherwood, apparently a landmark in gay literature. Ford is a first-time director but long-time fashion designer and was, for a time, the creative director of Gucci – he recently designed Daniel Craig’s outfits for Quantum of Solace. This fact goes some way to explaining why everyone looks as if they’ve stepped out of a catalogue in the film – George’s charcoal suit is impeccable, and a lovely character detail – but it’s also a clue as to what to expect from the striking visuals of A Single Man: George’s world is as grainy and diluted as an old photograph one moment; in the next moment saturated with warm colours, a Better Homes and Gardens brought to life. It’s the sun emerging from the clouds, a lovely, expressive device to represent George’s minor epiphanies and, besides that, a spectacular way to showcase Nicholas Hoult’s baby blues. That kid’s certainly grown up since About A Boy.  

It’s far from a case of style over substance though. It’s a powerful and emotional performance from Firth for a start, all the more remarkable when you consider he is usually alone on screen, saying nothing or, perhaps more accurately, saying everything while saying nothing. Yes, Hitchcock looms large over A Single Man (literally at one point: a massive billboard poster for Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho watches over a pivotal scene, the giant, terrified eyes of Janet Leigh seeing all). Abel Korzeniowski and Shigeru Umebayashi’s score is big on sad and menacing waltzes – Ford even uses some of Bernard Hermann’s score for Vertigo – and there’s a pervading, compelling sense of disquiet throughout. It’s the kind of restrained moodiness that will be appreciated by some and frustrate others – don’t go to this expecting a melodrama.  

At one point in the film, George lays out his desk with his personal effects like a shrine to something forgotten. A Single Man is as elegant and carefully arranged as that desk. It’s a stunning and stylist debut from Ford that makes the most of Firth at his best. Perving on magnificent early sixties fashion, worn by attractive people, is just a bonus.

A Single Man opens in Australian cinemas this Thursday, February 25.
You can view the A Single Man movie trailer here on TheVine.