A Single Man is an empty film. The film is a glossily hollow testament to narcissistic 60s Los Angeles, with occasional flashes of real sentiment. It was like a beautifully written, glibly finished short story, its final twist unsatisfying in its implausibility and predictability. Watching the film was like being shown footage from the sets of a series of gorgeous fashion shoots. Even when Colin Firth is being picked up by a rentboy there is nothing sordid or ugly about the scene; both actors are impeccably dressed, absurdly handsome men, leaning casually on a perfectly polished convertible, their cheekbones gleaming with the rosy hue of a Californian sunset. The plot of the film is simple; Colin Firth plays George, a grief-stricken gay English professor living in LA, whose partner of sixteen years recently died. We follow a day in George’s life as he considers whether his life is worth living. He teaches his classes, visits a friend, and is gifted a pencil sharpener by a shapely young man, all with plenty of portentous string music and significant pauses.

His turn in A Single Man has been described as the performance of Firth’s career. I think he’s just playing a slightly glummer, gayer version of Mr Darcy. This is probably the film of Firth’s career, but that’s just because he’s spent the last ten years making Bridget Jones 6 and playing Amanda Byne’s stuffy English father in What a Girl Wants. The true standout in this film is Julianne Moore, who plays Charley, Firth’s fellow London ex-pat and alcoholic divorcee. Her brittle desperation and tipsy reminiscing about past happiness constitutes one of the few moments when the film touches any real emotional depth. Nicholas Hoult convincingly plays a beautiful, supremely confident student who pursues George. Hoult murmurs self-actualising platitudes about the past and the future and gets his kit off, like the ideal ingénue. This film’s trademark is its achingly detailed close-ups, its frames of absolute photographic perfection. Though A Single Man contains excellent performances, the dialogue and the story arc lack the grandeur of its flawless presentation.

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