Fashion designer's Tom Ford directorial debut is strong on visuals for a low budget film. The slight storyline lacks a strong punch despite excellent acting from Julianne Moore, Nicholas Hoult and Colin Firth.
Adapted from a book by Christopher Isherwood, the film follows an unhappy single day in the life of a bereaved single gay man, George Falconer (Firth) whose partner has died in a road accident.
Falconer is an expatriate Englishman in Los Angeles in the early 1960s. A college professor teaching English to students who are about to enter the beatnik or biker generation.
The future does not matter too much to him, he wants to kill himself. We see his relationship with his partner in flashbacks including how left out he was when his partner is buried by his own family.
We also see him have a platonic but close relationship with Moore who plays another expatriate.
One of his student's (Hoult) tried to befriend him and eventually the two connect as they swim in the ocean but just as life might open up to him, fate deals another blow.
The film is slow moving and requires attention from the viewer to become involved with it.
Despite great photography, the script is weak but people look and dress wonderful. In fact its been described rather cruelly as 'Grief by Dior.'
Adapted from a book by Christopher Isherwood, the film follows an unhappy single day in the life of a bereaved single gay man, George Falconer (Firth) whose partner has died in a road accident.
Falconer is an expatriate Englishman in Los Angeles in the early 1960s. A college professor teaching English to students who are about to enter the beatnik or biker generation.
The future does not matter too much to him, he wants to kill himself. We see his relationship with his partner in flashbacks including how left out he was when his partner is buried by his own family.
We also see him have a platonic but close relationship with Moore who plays another expatriate.
One of his student's (Hoult) tried to befriend him and eventually the two connect as they swim in the ocean but just as life might open up to him, fate deals another blow.
The film is slow moving and requires attention from the viewer to become involved with it.
Despite great photography, the script is weak but people look and dress wonderful. In fact its been described rather cruelly as 'Grief by Dior.'