FemaleFirst.co.uk: DVD: A Single Man [DVD] [2009]

A Single Man [DVD] [2009]
enlarge	Director: Tom Ford Actors: Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, Matthew Goode, Nicholas Hoult Studio: Icon Home Entertainment Category: DVD List Price: ~~£19.99~~ Buy New: £6.43 as of 10/9/2010 18:44 BST details You Save: £13.56 (68%) New (18) Used (9) from £4.96 Seller: Amazon.co.uk Rating: 45 reviews Sales Rank: 74 Format: Anamorphic, Colour, DVD-Video, PAL, Widescreen Language: English (Original Language) Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over Region: 2 Aspect Ratio: 16:9 - 1.78:1 Number Of Discs: 1 Running Time: 97 Minutes Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3 Dimensions (in): 7.3 x 5.4 x 0.6 EAN: 5051429102054 ASIN: B003BEDAWC Theatrical Release Date: 2009 Release Date: June 7, 2010 Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours


Similar Items: The Last Station [DVD] [2009] Up In The Air [DVD] [2009] Precious [DVD] [2009] It's Complicated [DVD] [2009] An Education [DVD] [2009]


Customer Reviews: Showing reviews 1-5 of 45 1 2 3 4 5 6 ...9 Next » simply stunning film May 24, 2010 M. Selby (uk) 41 out of 44 found this review helpful A Single Man is a triumph. It is easily one of the most Oscar-deserving films of the year. Colin Firth's performance screams "Best Actor" (which he did win at the Venice Film Festival), Julianne Moore is exquisite, and Nicholas Hoult (About a Boy, Skins) is on his way to stardom. I was simply awestruck. The curtain rises on a despondent George (Firth) having lost his longtime partner. Sapped of energy and will, he struggles to wake each day and function as the brilliant college professor he's expected to be. Few notice the change in him, but one student sees George as a magnet pulling him forward to a place even he doesn't understand. Kenny (Hoult) seems to glow like an angel in George's dark world and, yet, is a puzzle and presents a challenge which he doesn't necessarily want to confront at this stage in his life. As is his custom, he turns to Charlotte (Moore) for a warm shoulder but the temperature drops amidst the chill surrounding George's bleak existence. Everything about this film -- the look, colors, pacing, shots, composition, cinematography, costumes, soundtrack -- says that an extraordinary amount of love and care went into it. Special mention to director of photography Eduard Grau and editor Joan Sobel for their keen abilities to work lockstep with Ford in projecting his vision onto the screen. Abel Korzeniowski's score is haunting and moving. Despite his design genius, Ford was generous enough to entrust costume designer Arianne Phillips with the freedom to work unencumbered. Production designer Dan Bishop, with art direction by Ian Phillips and set decorator Amy Wells, created two worlds -- a cold, stark one in which George sees only hopelessness, and another warm, colorful one in which he has hope. What stays with the viewer, though, is the enigmatic friendship between George and Kenny. Nicholas Hoult is absolutely mesmerizing in this. The way Ford shot him made people gasp. He's lit, framed, and shot like an Adonis. Of course, that's the idea here. This will definitely be a break out role for the 19-year-old. The camera loves him, and it's a pretty daring performance. Most of all, this is a tour de force for Firth and a stunning achievement which is destined to be a highlight of his distinguished career. The range of emotions and the extent to which his character must convey them through his eyes and facial expressions, with the copious use of long takes without dialogue, left me wide-eyed with wonder. This is the stuff of great movies. They don't get much better than this. Perfect acting, a beautiful and unforgettable movie. February 9, 2010 M. H. Costeris (Utrecht, the Netherlands) 41 out of 49 found this review helpful A movie based on the novel by Christopher Isherwood. Colin Firth plays a man who has lost his lover and finds himself unable to go on. He plans to end his life and we follow him through what should be his last day, during which he rediscovers some of the things that could make life worth living again, but it might still be to late for him. Much has been made of the fact that the movie looks beautiful and it does, but more than anything else it's the acting that really lifts the movie towards perfection. Colin Firth shows a side I had not appreciated in him before, projecting tremendously understated but heartbreaking emotion both in the way he delivers his lines and his non-verbal acting. Perhaps with the gravity of the subject there was a risk that this would lurch towards melodrama but that absolutely never happens. In fact quite often the movie is funny as well as profoundly moving. Visually the movie is perfect but I was struck by the quality of the sound effects as well. The way certain emotions and characters don't just project their own effect on the visual world of the movie but also carry their own sound theme throughout the movie opened the door to the main characters experience of the world in a way I had not expected. Beautiful and unforgettable. A perfect debut. Sensitive and powerful meditation of loving, living and dying February 16, 2010 Keris Nine 14 out of 18 found this review helpful In the run-up to the 2010 Oscars, dominated by well-made but overhyped mainstream Hollywood hopefuls (Up In The Air, Avatar, The Hurt Locker) and Hollywood wannabes (A Prophet), there's one film that lives up to the hype, and then some. Even now though, the press and critics bafflingly seem to be reining-in the enthusiasm, wondering whether A Single Man has any real substance behind fashion-designer-turned-filmmaker Tom Ford's superficial stylisations or whether there is any real depth behind Colin Firth's performance. There most certainly is. Set in LA in 1962, an aging English professor, finding it impossible to publicly grieve the death of his homosexual partner who has just died in a car crash, sets about arranging for his own suicide. There certainly seems to be little more to the film than George's painful reminiscences of what has been lost mixed with chance encounters in the present day - minor encounters mostly, none of them apparently significant enough to deter him from the direction he is determined to take - but each of the little episodes that make up the film and the manner in which they are filmed, cumulatively add up to a realistic and meaningful consideration of the experience of loving, living and dying. Tom Ford's direction and visual language - the period detail, the colouration, the emphasis on mood and facial expression over expositional dialogue - would seem to owe much to Wong Kar-wai - an impression enforced by the use of Shigeru Umebayashi on the soundtrack - but the director nonetheless finds in it a personal means to best express the complexity of emotions that the situation gives rise to. Colin Firth is a revelation in this respect, his usual impassive demeanour appropriate for the reserved nature of his character, but there's a brave openness about his performance that we've not seen before that allows George's vulnerability to break through. This may very well be the film of the year - it's certainly one of the most beautiful. Poignant & truthful July 5, 2010 MRS TRACEY E HORRELL 3 out of 4 found this review helpful I saw A Single Man at the cinema and was captivated. How refreshing to find something focussing on quality of filming and integrity at every level. The whole package makes this a classic in my opinion from the arty struggles of the water sequence of the opening credits to the doomed earthly one of the closing scene. Cast, cinematography, quality of acting and attention to detail - all are first-rate. Colin Firth is a deserving BAFTA winner. An Oscar would have been great too and was well-deserved, but I guess on the US it was still just too controversial for such an accolade. Grief that Dares Not Speak Its Name May 3, 2010 Ford Ka (Edinburgh, Scotland) 3 out of 4 found this review helpful The main subject of this beautifully made and shot movie is grief, one that does not dare to speak its name. From the very beginning the viewer is invited into a world of grief which the main hero cannot share with almost anyone else. George Falconer (absolutely brilliant Colin Firth) learns of his long-term partner's (Matthew Goode good-looking as always) death almost by chance, a distant relative is kind enough to make a phone call, but George is immediately barred from participating in the funeral service. This is "for family only" and a gay partner does not qualify as such. He does not have the right to mourn the beloved person. The only person with whom he can try to share his grief is his British friend Charlie (stunning Julianne Moore) who is sympathetic but as it turns out does not take Falconer quite as seriously as he would hope for. For her the two men's shared life was "a substitute for something else", an idea which Falconer rejects outright. The movie present only one day of Falconer's life, the day which he planned as his last, unable to cope with grief he can't share, mourning he was denied, he contemplates suicide. But life has much more up its sleeve and the day proves much different from anything Falconer could have planned. The movie may seem to deal with the past. It is set in 1962 and no effort was spared in the re-making of the US of the days of JFK admistration. But this is not a period piece, the issue it deals with is more than present for many people who live their lifes stuck in closets usually not of their own making. People who are not allowed to reveal their emotions (not necessarily the negative ones) because that would mean revealing much more, something that others refuse to accept. Tom Ford has a perfect eye for the visual side of the movie-making business, Abel Korzeniowski's score is just as perfect, the casting great. Is there anything more to expect from a movie? Showing reviews 1-5 of 45 1 2 3 4 5 6 ...9 Next »

CERTAIN CONTENT THAT APPEARS ON THIS SITE COMES FROM AMAZON EU S.à.r.l. THIS CONTENT IS PROVIDED ‘AS IS’ AND IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE OR REMOVAL AT ANY TIME.