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A Single Man (2009) -- An English professor tries to go about his typical day in Los Angeles after the sudden death of his partner.
A Single Man (2009) -- AllTrailers.net - Trailer (Flash)

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Overview

User Rating:
8.0/10   305 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Down 75% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Director:
Writers:
Tom Ford (screenplay)
Christopher Isherwood (novel)
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Contact:
View company contact information for A Single Man on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
February 2010 (Australia) more
Genre:
Plot:
A story that centers on an English professor who, after the sudden death of his partner tries to go about his typical day in Los Angeles. | add synopsis
Awards:
3 wins & 1 nomination more
NewsDesk:
(220 articles)
The Satellites Have Launched. What Are They Orbiting?
 (From FilmExperience. 30 November 2009, 6:10 AM, PST)

Corliss singles out A Single Man
 (From AwardsDaily. 30 November 2009, 1:56 AM, PST)

User Comments:
A role tailor-made for Colin Firth more (12 total)

Cast

  (Credited cast)

Colin Firth ... George

Julianne Moore ... Charlotte

Matthew Goode ... Jim

Ginnifer Goodwin ... Mrs. Strunk

Nicholas Hoult ... Kenny

Ryan Simpkins ... Jennifer Strunk

Paulette Lamori ... Alva
rest of cast listed alphabetically:

Nicholas Beard ... Student

Brad Benedict ... Tennis Stud #1

Paul Butler ... Christopher Strunk

Ridge Canipe ... Young boy

Alicia Carr ... Secretary #2

Jenna Gavigan ... Secretary

Brent Gorski ... Walter

Adam Gray-Hayward ... Russ

Marlene Martinez ... Maria

Jeremy Mitchell ... Tennis Stud

Lindsay Moulton ... Grant's wife

Tricia Munford ... Cashier

Lee Pace ... Grant

Keri Lynn Pratt ... George's Secretary

Aaron Sanders ... Tom Strunk

Teddy Sears ... Mr. Strunk

Adam Shapiro ... Myron Hirsch

Nicole Steinwedell ... Doris

Maya Waterman ... Secretary
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Additional Details

Runtime:
Canada:99 min (Toronto International Film Festival)
Country:
Language:
Color:
Aspect Ratio:
2.35 : 1 more
Company:

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
Tom Ford revealed in an interview that the role of Kenny was originally given to a more famous actor who then didn't show up to the costume fitting five days prior to shooting. Ford then remembered an audition tape by Nicholas Hoult. more

FAQ

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17 out of 26 people found the following comment useful.
A role tailor-made for Colin Firth, 18 October 2009
9/10
Author: susannah-straughan-1 from United Kingdom

With Tom Ford at the helm, the very least you'd expect from his adaptation of Christopher Isherwood's novel is a parade of gorgeous men in well-cut suits. Certainly there's enough Kennedy-era period detail here to satisfy the most ardent fan of Mad Men (and an uncredited voice cameo from Jon Ham). But the meticulously edited trailer gives no hint of the warmth and humour that underscore this potentially bleak meditation on love and loss.

The action takes place over the course of just one day (and night) -- 30 November 1962 -- in the life of handsome, middle-aged college professor George (Colin Firth). Like his friend, neighbour and one-time lover Charley (Julianne Moore), George is an expat in LA. He has a good job and a well-appointed home in a picture-perfect suburban street, but since the death of his long-term lover Joe (Matthew Goode) a few months earlier, George has been going through the motions. Now today it appears that he is putting his affairs in order, with a view to ending it all.

I must confess that I never swooned over Colin Firth's Mr Darcy back in the 90s and I've found it increasingly hard to relate to the repressed, lovelorn and frankly lumpen Englishmen he often plays. But here he's a revelation. As George's day unfolds, a series of reveries -- erotic, nostalgic, humorous and sad -- reveal the man behind the immaculately suited exterior. Whether perched on the loo wryly observing his neighbours, lavishing praise on a bemused secretary, or enduring a discourse on bomb shelters from a colleague (Lee Pace), Firth shows a welcome lightness of touch. He's tender and tolerant as Moore's gin-sodden hostess berates him for his inability to be the (heterosexual) man she needs. And his obsessive-compulsive fumbling with a gun and a sleeping bag are hilarious.

Moore expertly conveys the fragility and hopelessness of a woman once married and once feted for her looks, who is now staring into the abyss through the bottom of a bottle of Tanqueray's. It reminded me of some of her best work -- in Safe, Boogie Nights and The Hours -- and made me wish she'd stop wasting her talent playing second fiddle to the likes of Nicolas Cage and Samuel L Jackson.

It's a film in which the camera restlessly prowls in search of physical perfection: in the well-tended gardens of George's neighbourhood; the piercing blue eyes of flirtatious student Kenny (Nicholas Hoult); and the chiselled looks of Goode's doomed lover. But the script, co-written by Ford and David Scearce, ensures that this never descends into pastiche or glossy melodrama.

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Message Boards

Discuss this movie with other users on IMDb message board for A Single Man (2009)
Recent Posts (updated daily)User
One of the most pretentious trailers i've ever seen.... Film_Bug
'partner' robsigns62
any screenings of this in DC? andopolislf
Time for TWC to break out their advertising budget mimacdon4
When will they start showing the trailer in theaters? groovymike_16
Julianne's screen time? ThePhoenixMustBurn
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