“OMG work has been murder this week. I had time to watch movies when I’d come home, but I figured in the state of mind I was in, I wouldnt be able to give them a fair watching. Pulled what I call a Dawn Dawn Double Feature today. That just means I saw two movies today. This time, both at the Kendall Square Landmark Theater. First time I ever double there. Usually I get one there, then catch the second elsewhere.
Anyhoo, first up was A Single Man, which I thought was rather incredible. I absolutely adored Colin Firth’s character, George, and he was played so expertly. You could practically feel the pain he was going thru, and sympathized with his character every step of the way. Fully support the inevitable Oscar nod Firth is poised for.
Guess we’ll keep going down the line with the cast. Never particularly cared much for Julianne Moore, except for Magnolia, but I loved everyone in that. While she was good here, I dont see why she’s also supposed to be a lock for an Oscar nod. I dunno, just wasnt as struck by her as I was by Firth and some of the others. The others would be Nicholas Hoult and Matthew Goode, neither of whom I was familiar with previously. Apparently Nicholas Hoult was the little kid in About A Boy, which I never saw. He annoyed me at first but I fell in love with him over the course of the movie. And Goode was (resisting the urge for the bad pun) quite go..um…great as the idealized lover.
While I definitely recommend this film, I warn you it is quite the downer. As if the story wasnt somber enough on its own, the feel was heightened by the lighting. During George’s low points, the lighting would be very bleak and dull. It’d brighten momentarily along with his moods, but that didnt usually last too long. I found that detail to be extremely effective and was quite impressed by it. By the end, it was one of those that I just needed a minute to recover from. I wont go into spoilery detail but all along I’d expected the film to end a certain way, then it didnt, then it twisted again. I spent the last 5 minutes frozen, with my hand covering my mouth after I’d gasped with surprise along with the rest of the fairly sizable crowd. I didnt even get up until halfway through the credits, and I wasn’t the only one who’d been affected that way it seemed.
A Single Man – \m/ \m/ \m/ \m/