Loneliness and loss frame the movie A Single Man. George's life partner Jim dies in a car accident. George has lost his world and contemplates suicide while everyone around him is fearful that their world will end, too, during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.
George's flashbacks with Jim focus on their personalities, rather than on their sex, unlike so many other movies of today, where "making love" predominates "love". Yet the emphasis centers on their good times together - almost too good to be true. Herein lies a paradox, because if it really was so, then George had a better life than most of us, and frankly, it's difficult to feel too sorry for him. Get on with your life, buddy, and be thankful for what you had!
On the other hand, after an emotionally arousing but apparently nonsexual encounter with Kenny (here again the theme of love versus making love), George puts away his gun and burns his letters of goodbye, only to then suffer a fatal heart attack. In his dying moments he reunites with his beloved Jim, but we can only speculate whether it's merely reveries or authentic life after death. The credits roll at this point, so we need also wonder about Kenny's state of mind when he finds George's body. Life and its suffering do go on.
The film's advertising is slightly misleading in that George is shown lying next to Charley, his woman friend with whom he had a past relationship. Sure, this is designed to attract straight viewers, but anyone hungry for psychologically rather than sexually mature scenes between a man and woman will find it here.
We are born single and usually die alone. A Single Man dramatizes our loneliness in a powerful and literally haunting way. I seriously recommend watching this film alone to let it capture you in its rumination.
George's flashbacks with Jim focus on their personalities, rather than on their sex, unlike so many other movies of today, where "making love" predominates "love". Yet the emphasis centers on their good times together - almost too good to be true. Herein lies a paradox, because if it really was so, then George had a better life than most of us, and frankly, it's difficult to feel too sorry for him. Get on with your life, buddy, and be thankful for what you had!
On the other hand, after an emotionally arousing but apparently nonsexual encounter with Kenny (here again the theme of love versus making love), George puts away his gun and burns his letters of goodbye, only to then suffer a fatal heart attack. In his dying moments he reunites with his beloved Jim, but we can only speculate whether it's merely reveries or authentic life after death. The credits roll at this point, so we need also wonder about Kenny's state of mind when he finds George's body. Life and its suffering do go on.
The film's advertising is slightly misleading in that George is shown lying next to Charley, his woman friend with whom he had a past relationship. Sure, this is designed to attract straight viewers, but anyone hungry for psychologically rather than sexually mature scenes between a man and woman will find it here.
We are born single and usually die alone. A Single Man dramatizes our loneliness in a powerful and literally haunting way. I seriously recommend watching this film alone to let it capture you in its rumination.