Directed by Tom Ford
Colin Firth is used to playing the romantic lead since his Mr Darcy stint in the 1995 hit telefilm of Pride and Prejudice. In this romantic tale he is George Falconer, a 52 year old British college professor, struggling after the death of his long time partner Jim (Matthew Goode). Living in Los Angeles almost 50 years ago, George dwells on the past and cannot shake a deep depression. As we follow him through a single day, we share the personal encounters that ultimately lead him to decide if there can be life after Jim.
After being shunned by the family of his partner of 16 years, George is consoled by his closest friend, Charley (Julianne Moore), a 48 year old beauty who is wrestling with her own questions about the future. Kenny (Nicholas Hoult from About A Boy who is now 18) a young student of George’s trying to come to terms with his true nature, stalks George hoping to answer some of his questions, but he ends up rescuing George – both emotionally and literally.
Deciding to end his life, George thinks he is seeing things for the last time, and begins to view the world differently. Living for the first time in years in the present, he is confronted with the beauty. Watch the colour change from the beginning of the day when George is so depressed that life for him is literally colourless. Moments of beauty during the day colour the screen until by evening George is living almost entirely in technicolour. Director Tom Ford describes the story as a universal tale of coming to terms with the isolation that we all feel, and of the importance of living in the present and understanding that the small things in life are really the big things in life.
Lezly Herbert
