Colin Firth Plays a Wistful Game of Solitaire in ‘A Single Man’

CHICAGO – There is a certain madness in the shock of grieving over a loved one who has passed that manifests itself in particular ways. Colin Firth interprets those emotions intuitively in the captivating “A Single Man.”

Rating: 4.5/5.0

Firth portrays George, a tenured literature professor at a mid-level California university in 1962. As an expatriate from Britain, he has barely adapted to the different ways of his new homeland. As the film opens, he is shown in a strange situation where he is approaching an automobile that has skidded in snowstorm. A man has been thrown from the vehicle. George kisses him.

It is learned later that Jim (Matthew Goode), his lover of 16 years, had been killed in an automobile accident. Given that gay men were mostly closeted in this era, George is not welcome at the funeral. Cut off and stranded in a life without his partner, George must wake up to face the day and make some decisions of his own.

What follows is a twisted, almost surreal sadness of a day, as George meanders through and contemplates the life that is facing him. His only solace is his best friend, Charley (Julianne Moore), and perhaps the connection to a number of people and memories that evoke Jim. In his open wound state, George does have a vulnerability and spirit that makes him free, and in that freedom perhaps a path to redemption.

Continue reading for Patrick McDonald’s full review of “A Single Man” [15]

Life Without Him: Colin Firth as George in ‘A Single Man’ Photo credit: Copywright © The Weinstein Company

Continue reading for Patrick McDonald’s full review of “A Single Man” [15]