A Single Man is the story of George Falconer, a 52 year old British college professor (Colin Firth) who is struggling to find meaning to his life after the death of his long time partner, Jim (Matthew Goode). George dwells on the past and cannot see his future as we follow him through a single day, where a series of events and encounters, ultimately leads him to decide if there is a meaning to life after Jim. George is consoled by his closest friend Charley (Julianne Moore), a 48 year old beauty who is wrestling with her own questions about the future. A young student of George's, Kenny (Nicholas Hoult), who is coming to terms with his true nature, stalks George as he feels in him a kindred spirit.This is one of those textbook artsy movies that will probably be shown in film studies classes years from now. They could use it to show great character development, the use of symbolic flashbacks, how the musical score can effect a scene, the use of single camera shots and the importance of cinematography catching an "era" even if its mostly inside of houses. Unfortunately, I found it to be very boring. This is one of those movies that as a film fan I can see how very well done it was and how good the performances in it were, but I just wasn't in to it at all.
I would only recommend this movie for die hard film buffs and oscar recognition junkies. Outside of those people, there really isn't anyone that I would push to see this. Its couldn't be less of a mainstream movie if it tried.
