Potentially a good movie, if director just trusted his materil: A Single Man

"A Single Man" is a truly disappointing movie because there's a kernel of a really good story in there somewhere and it's totally destroyed by Tom Ford's far over-the-top, over-determined direction, full of lengthy dreamy sequences of bodies floating in water, interminable swells of cornball music meant to lift us to a high realm of emotion, I guess, but totally offputting, flashbacks and quick cuts that are entirely confusing and make it impossible for him to focus on the good acting that he does elicit, at least from Julianne Moore (Colin Firth is good when he's not mumbling). If only he director had trusted his material and his actors and told the story in a straightforward way. But no; Tom Ford is I hear a great designer making his directorial debut. Terrific. Now I can't wait for the Martin Scorcese line of men's clothing. His sense of how to construct a film is like an ambitious film student circa 1970. And by the way how are we supposed to interpret the lengthy foreplay between Firth and one of his college students - hardly acceptable even in 1962 (when film is set) and certainly troubling today. Film is the story of a day in the life of a homosexual man completely distraught about the recent death of his 16-year partner. After flirting with suicide he (spoiler) ultimately dies of a heart attack - quite a day! Yes, it's a total downer and all rather improbable - but the potential for greatness is there in one sequence, the flashback to the phone call Firth received in which he learns of his partner's death and of the family's refusal to welcome/acknowledge his existence and their relationship. This is the profound sorrow - the suffering an outsider feels and the lie he has to live, and if the movie had really built on that in any serious way it could have been quite good, but instead it just wallows in sentiment. A good movie builds character an allows us to feel empathy but this heavy-handed movie just crushes the life out of its material and out of us.