A Single Man (R, 2009)

It’s no surprise that Tom Ford, the visionary behind the magnificently tailored Gucci line, has fashioned a stunning film. Every scene is elegantly framed, lit, and hued; every character is sophisticatedly turned out. In this way, A SINGLE MAN is a singular feat, easily one of the handsomest movies made in 2009. But though he displays a sure hand as director, Ford’s approach to the material rests a bit too heavily on the visual and too gently on the emotional -- surprising, considering that the film is about a man deeply in mourning. Somehow it all comes off a bit clinically -- life here is too beautifully tragic. You wonders what kind of heft the story would have carried had it not been pintucked so carefully.

That said, Firth is remarkable as a man in love but lost. His restrained-but-obvious grief rescues the movie somewhat from its too-pretty perch. Nobody does “damaged hysteria” better than Moore, but it’s too reminiscent of her other roles (Boogie Nights, for instance), which makes it less potent. It’s clear that Ford has respect for his actors’ gifts, but the ending isn’t credible, and the storytelling is oddly removed and stripped of authentic melancholy.