A Single Man

Former fashion designer Tom Ford's directorial debut is based on a 1964 novel by Christopher Isherwood that's set in L.A. in 1962 over a single day. Middle-aged Brit ex-pat college professor George (Firth) is still devastated months later by the car crash death of his longtime lover Jim (Goode) and, because of the times and his own stiff-upper-lip, George is isolated and can't acknowledge his sexuality, let alone his sorrow. Now George is planning to commit suicide. He follows his usual routine while putting his affairs in order and spends his intended last evening with longtime friend, sophisticated, brittle alcoholic Charley (Moore). Ford offers a sunlit California setting that George can only see as unimaginably bleak while Firth gives a stunningly quiet performance of a man overwhelmed by inexpressible grief.