Tom Ford's A Single Man surprised me in many aspects. First, of course, because of the screenplay as well as the original novel. The whole film narrates a single day of the main character wakes up and decides to end his life. How ironic is that one really lives in the present after deciding to kill himself.
Second, the changes of color on George (Colin Firth), especially on his face. The various tones of warm and desaturated colors reflect every up and down moment in life. One color would never consists, unless it comes to death, then the color would sustain in a constant value. This design of visual effect might be cliche, but, to me, it's shrewd and pleasant.
Third, the details. Once George set to end his life, every little thing becomes vivid. The smile, the lip, the line of body shape, the nude, the conversation, the woman, the guy, the intimacy and so on, blowing up in its moment.
Another thing I like about A single Man is the non-gender. You can replace any sex in all characters without feeling the oddness. Homosexuality isn't the subject. Everything backs to the essential, love, life and relationship etc. The emotion is just so natural between the human beings.
Before George really talk to, in theory, a human being in years, many scenes are shot from outside of a window, a wall or a frame etc. It seems the character is stuck in a physical space or maybe let's say in his own body. An emotionless and lonely lifestyle, which people cannot truly know but think he can do whatever he wants, is what he lives in. I like the deep expression Colin Firth brings to the character, a single man.
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