The 52: A Single Man

     From June 2023 to June 2024 I'll be watching a lgbtqia+ film each week and coming back here with my thoughts, feelings and plenty of hopes we aren't met with the "kill your gays" trope. I call this The 52.

One thing I didn’t expect would happen in a single man? Colin Firth imagining he pissed in a kid’s mouth.

Image credit: Wikipedia

“Bit melodramatic I guess’s, but then again… my heart has been broken”

It wasn’t sexual, the aforementioned pissing- he was very literally pissed off, but still. Bit weird, mate.

There are many, many, many things to note about this (rather dull and very morbid) film, like the fact Colin Firth doesn’t look like Colin Firth (how is that even possible?) and the whole introduction sequence being entirely comprised of close up shots of his bare arse as he swims about for no real reason, or the really strange window in the bathroom of George's (our protagonist) house that means he can watch the neighbours while sitting on the toilet. Mostly it’s… honestly a bit durge-like, but we’ll get there.

One thing, maybe the only thing (although the outfitting was rather nice) I did actually enjoy was the colour. Reflecting George's depression, the film is a kind of sepia-greyscale, making everything you see solemn, desperate, weighing you down until, in a rare moment of wonder or appreciation, everything brightens. It took me a while to work out what was happening, but when you put the pieces together it’s rather marvellous and very impressive, flashbacks to a life that was joyful and bright, colour draining away as he slides back into a life that has lost all its saturation.

In A Single Man, we follow George who is mourning the death of his lover and preparing to commit suicide. Obviously this sets a fairly rough tone for the film as, methodically and somewhat merrily, George sets about for his final day. There’s even a "comedic" scene of him struggling to position the gun against his mouth and wriggling about in a sleeping bag to avoid creating a mess. I found it weird and distasteful, but maybe this is the height of humour now. Then there’s Kenny, the student who is clearly obsessed with George, and the beginnings of a relationship George encourages between them, boundaries crossed with every odd interaction (some might say that oddness comes from one sided affection or George's state of mind, but I’d say it’s the fact one is a student and one is a teacher).

And then finally there’s Charlie, George's best friend who has a glaringly obvious crush on him and tries it on EVEN AS HE’S MOURNING HIS PARTNER. I actually grew up being aware of this film but I never knew it was lgbtqia+ because the cover always suggested a relationship between Firth’s character and that of Charlie, played by Julianne Moore.

Anyway, it’s a pretty odd one and I don’t know why we needed to see so much butt, why George was so annoyed about bread being left the freezer and why an ending would allow itself to be so irritating as the one we get here. Not what you might call a fan.

Like things shorter? Follow me on Letterboxd and see my review