A Single Man

This mildly feted film was largely seen as being surprising in so far as it is not awful, being as it is financially a vanity project for a fashion designer. They are right in so far as it is not awful, but this doesn't make it particularly good. It is about a middling film, though that doens't mean average.
It's a shame we saw it with so many preconceptions, as the spot-the-awful-fashion-designer game serves nobody. Let us try and go beyond that.
On the plus side, we have a gentle, stately central performance from Colin Firth. Apart from Nicholas Hoult the acting indeed is fine (in the superlative sense of that term). It is not over-egged,and fits the deliberately flat, rather dreamy and uncertain mood. The story is also an interesting conceit.
Let us talk about the visuals. The sets are dressed nicely, the actors are dressed wonderfully sharply. The colour changes, the increasing vividness of the shots, is a surpirisng touch. The use of slow motion and sunlight creates a few arresting images in juxtapositition (the liquor store car park, for example). This makes it a worthwhile film to look at.
However, we are not sure that all these touches are filmed, are shot, particularly well. Take the use of changes in brightness/contrast. A good idea, used at the right time, but it doesn't so much seem cinematic as a good idea on paper or in photographs (anti fashion designer prejudice). The way the scenes are shot is not 'bad'...there are interesting ideas, the use of images is thoughtful. It is just that the framing of the particular objects, while not being a drawback, doesn't particularly add anything. This is basically a criticism that magic is not worked, and it should be kept in mind that the ambition and invention is far above the level of most major releases. The point is not that beautiful things are shot badly making the images unappetising, it is rather that nothing is added by the use of directorial conventions. And there is too much slow motion.
More basic problems are that the story is not told in a particularly exciting or coherent way, the rythm is rather uneven. Also, the script is frankly very poor, the idea not exactly profound but always rather glib. The lecturing and soliloqiues (especially on 'fear') are cringeworthy. Tom Ford is a director who deserves interest, and should be credited for interesting ideas, but he needs someone else to storyboard and write the scripts.
We fear this has turned into an analysis where we knew the result before going in the cinema, and we should rememphasise that this is a weighty story told with visual inventivenesss and some wonderfully gentle touches, particualy from Firth. It however fails to quite fly.