A Single Man Makes Me Weep ( Out of Frustration)

I once had a teacher tell me that reading my essay on transcendentalism was like watching a performance of Michelle Kwan at the Olympics. In this metaphor, Michelle Kwan skates a beautiful and technically perfect routine, that is, right up until the last jump when she falls flat on her face. This one fall, at the very end no less, is dramatic and disappointing enough to negate the beautiful performance immediately preceding it. When I finished A Single Man, a visual of this tragic ice skating scenario came to mind.

First of all, let me just get this out the way, there are some beautiful men in this movie. Beautiful. If you are a fan of beautiful men, then I think this film is definitely worth watching. A certain Spanish male model named Jon Kortajena (that is probably in it for, maybe 10 minutes) is absolutely captivating! Lee Pace is hot, Colin Firth is no slouch (and I know some of you have a fetish for him), the gay lover played by Matthew Goode, you know he's hot. And remember that awkward little dork kid from About A Boy? Well, who knew? He grew up to be hot.

Hollywood's version

Male Prostitute

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Now that that's out of my system, the aforementioned actors have more than looks going for them. Colin Firth is gut-wrenching as a grieving lover. He embodies that character. Take the scene in which he first finds out about his lover's accident. He doesn't break down immediately. He doesn't lose his composure. It is not in his character's character to do so while he has an acquaintance on the phone. A few tears stream down his cheeks, meanwhile his voice and demeanor are fairly unaffected.

It is the subtlety of this film that makes it powerful. Many films, especially those from the indie quirk movement, attempt understatement in order to make a powerful statement. But we see this so often that when I see it used effectively, I just breathe a sigh of relief. Ah this is subtlety. I am a sucker for great acting.

Colin Firth evolves throughout this film. It is a believable evolution too. I want to go into this detail more, but I will save that until below the spoiler line.

Great acting is given to excellently written characters, MAGIC, and up until the last few minutes, I was really enjoying myself.

SPOILER ALERT!

Remember the character we see evolve throughout the film? The one that overcomes his grief in favor of a deeper knowledge? Yeah well, he dies. Not because he kills himself as he intended, but because of a heart attack. A heart attack on the night he had planned suicide. Coincidence. Of course. Why? Why does this add anything to the film?

Like I started saying before, Colin Firth evolves. He is a broken man at the beginning, completely resigned from life. Suicide is his plan because he no longer feels he can enjoy his life. We go through almost two hours of him learning why he has a reason to live, and he learns this lesson too and doesn't go through with his plan. Then he has a heart attack. Again, WHY?

Was this an attempt to make us appreciate life more? If so, it just makes it seem all the more meaningless. Was a happy ending not edgy enough? Random seemed a more critically attractive option? EGH. Either way, it killed this film for me. All the beautiful men, all the beautiful cinematography, and I don't particularly want to see it ever again. A great movie, but the ending... man. I'm getting mad just thinking about it.

3 out of 5 stars