Your enjoyment of this film is going to depend on whether you believe that a thing of beauty is a joy forever and I am not talking about Colin Firth. Director Tom Ford comes from the world of fashion and the film resonates with his aesthetic sense in every frame. Colin Firth carries the film on slick settings and high fashion and its near total fascination with the manifestations of grief on his very fragile shoulders. He must have lost thirty pounds to play this part. Firth’s ability to show grief in the twitch of an eyebrow, in the droop of a shoulder makes this frail vehicle work.

A Single Man, based on the Christopher Isherwood novel, is a true vehicle for Ford's eye for set design, and for the casting of this very talented friends.

Eight months ago George Falconer’s (Colin Firth, below) lover Jim (Matthew Goode) died in a horrible car crash. It is 1962 and they were closeted gay men; George is unable to even attend the funeral. Falconer is an English professor who seems bereft of friends, save his oldest one, Charley (Julianne Moore). Filmgoers watch George going through the motions, teaching students, meeting a Spanish prostitute, and dining with Charley. His final encounter of the day, spending time with a young student Kenny, played by the most beautiful boy I've ever seen, Nicholas Hoult (below right).

        
  
George's home is a true classic, an early 40's era glass and timber masterpiece, which during his life with Jim was a haven and sanctuary, but after such a loss, is now a open wound, letting more light and pain in. Find out more about the incredible properties  and set design here and here...

        

Julianne Moore is perfect as the desperately lonely, but sweet Charley, and her house is beyond divine. The pairing of her bitter and understated alcoholism plays beautifully off her glamorous Hollywood Regency-style home. And those eyelashes...!

        

Find yourself some decadent Charley-style items, like these...