Tom Ford is a creative genius. Watch the video to get his insight, as well as the actors, into the film. Highly recommended. This film was so artistically stunning that it is no surprise how many nominations and awards it received. The story was taken from Christopher Isherwoord's book A Single Man. It wasn't a plot to me so much as everyday life viewed with a "vibrancy" as Tom Ford called it. There is no rush to what will happen next, but an appreciation of every moment. The day is a progression of breathtaking moments as seen by the main character -George- because he is living with the knowledge that this is his last day on earth. The music that accompanied these scenes was devastatingly perfect in heightening the experience.
There were certain things that stuck out to me and I've decided to include them for everyone to think about. In particular I could not get past the very opening lines of, "It takes time in the morning for me to become George. I have to adjust to what is expected of George, how he is to behave. By the time I have dressed and put the final layer of polish on the now slightly stiff but quite perfect George I know fully what part I am supposed to play." It is depressing taken in the sense that we are all pretending to be someone, but the statement is nonetheless true. Could there be a more perfect reference to Shakespeare's "All the world's a stage; and all the men and women merely players..." How we present ourselves very much influences and is influenced in turn by who we feel we should be. The ending with the layer of polish and the slightly stiff reference is the perfect reinforcement of the idea of being quite artificial or superficial. Artificial because he is creating a front for himself. George is superficial in that when encountering him you are getting only the layer of him is allowing you to see not beneath it.
One last quote: "A few times in my life I've had moments of absolute clarity, when for a few brief seconds the silence drowns out the noise and I can feel rather than think, and things seem so sharp and the world seems so fresh. I can never make these moments last. I cling to them, but like everything, they fade. I have lived my life on these moments. They pull me back to the present, and I realize that everything is exactly the way it was meant to be. "
