Saturday, March 6, 2010

Just Get Through the Goddamned Day

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.
~ George Falconer in A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood



Orchestral music reminiscent of Hitchcock's very best soundtracks plays throughout the trailer for one of the best dramatic movies ever. I love everything about this film - the superb acting, the cinematography, the art direction.... If his role in A Single Man is not recognized with an Oscar for Colin Firth, I will be extremely displeased.

You catch yourself holding your breath while you watch this movie, knowing that something terrible is going to happen; with the knowledge that something terrible has already happened. In the same way that filmmakers captured Robert Downey Jr's Sherlock Holmes' viewpoint in the restaurant scene - the sharp focus on details that were almost unbearably overwhelming to a character in a heightened state of awareness - A Single Man achieves this continuously. It is quite a feat to behold.




The soundtrack is so hauntingly lovely. It's a travesty this didn't receive a nomination. Composers Abel Korzeniowski & Shigeru Umebayashi are brilliant. You really should immediately buy the entire score - check it out beginning with the first track here. The taut piece underlying the trailer is A Clock Tick. Others, like Stillness of the Mind, are achingly sad.

The writing is beautiful, so well crafted. It doesn't hurt that it's delivered by such a drop-dead gorgeous Brit total babe fine actor.

5 comments:

Bill Lisleman said...

thanks probably one I would like

Miss Healthypants said...

Wow, I haven't seen this yet--but you make a good case. I'll have to check it out.

shrink on the couch said...

really.want.to.see.this.one !!

and not just because it's mr darcy, either.

Fantastic Forrest said...

To my total nonsurprise, Firth didn't get the Oscar. I'll have to check out Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart, but I'm not optimistic. And I really don't like Bridges' weird Col. Sanders beard look.

Bee said...

I'm seeing this movie on Saturday. Will check back after. xx