Deborah Ross

Devastating grief

A Single Man<br /> Nationwide, 12A

issue 13 February 2010

A Single Man
Nationwide, 12A

A Single Man is noted fashion designer Tom Ford’s debut feature film and while it is distractingly over-designed — every table lamp looks as if it had its own personal stylist — it is also a true and proper account of bereavement, grief, loss and loneliness. I can see I haven’t made it sound like a fun-packed, feel-good night at the cinema, and it isn’t, but its depth of feeling is so powerful and commanding it’s almost bruising. Heavens, I’ve made it sound even less fun now. You know, this is a hard film to recommend, because it’s so sad, and a hard film to not recommend, because it’s so good about what it is like to be so sad. A tricky one or, to put it another way: unlike It’s Complicated, this rather is.

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