Tom Ford, a fashion designer best known for his turnaround of the Gucci label and the creation of his own label, started a production company in 2005.  He called it Fade to Black, an ironic title given the manner in which he brings the company’s first feature - A Single Man - to life.  A Single Man is anything but a fade to black; it’s a technicolor masterpiece of cinematography and heavy-handed direction.

Is this bad - “heavy-handed direction?”  Not when he subject calls for it - and George (the central character of A Single Man) certainly needs some technicolor in his life.  He’s lived in a vacuum of pain and despair for some (intentionally-ambiguous) period of time.  His lover of sixteen years is gone.  His best friend (Charley, played by Julianne Moore) is in love with him and can’t seem to understand that George’s homosexuality is not a temporary state that he could shed at a moment’s notice.  His conservative neighbor wants to kill him for being “light in the loafers.”  And his house is a vacant series of glass and straight lines - very 50s, very perfectly arranged, very isolating.

A Single Man takes viewers on a journey through a single day in one man’s life, documenting the beauty of the small moments.  The color of a girl’s dress in the bank.  The waft of smoke that comes out of a man’s mouth at the gas station.  The smell of a rare breed of dog.  As the audience discovers these things, so does George - who’s missed them all for far too long.  These simple objects on this simple day change his life - and remind the viewers in the audience of the frailty and allure of everyday life.

More than anything, Ford uses color to bring these trifles to life on the screen.  Contrasting a muted, almost-sepia palette against saturated tones that are so warm they almost hurt to look at, Ford won’t allow his viewer to look away.  Whether you want to or not, you will lay witness to the movement in this moment, the steely beauty of this man’s eyes.  Ford’s hand reaches from the screen, grabs his viewer by the neck, and turns our heads in the direction he wants us to look.

The film is graced by an incredible ensemble of earnest portrayals by its actors and a solid, true-to-life screenplay that breaks all the rules.  There is no rising action here, no conventional climax, no page-twenty conflict or question.  Yet, we are captivated by George, due largely to the understated portrayal by Colin Firth - who got screwed out of Best Actor (which isn’t to say Jeff Bridge’s portrayal from Crazy Heart wasn’t phenomenal...).  Julianne Moore turns in her usual best as Charley, a woman grasping at straws to keep her mind above water as she lives the existence of an abandoned wife and mother who desperately needs to retain her beauty.  Even the most heterosexual male cannot deny the tragedy of Matthew Goode’s Jim, who has but a few minutes on-screen but makes his audience adore him as much as George.  And Nicholas Hoult as Kenny turns in the same likeable, disarming charm that made him so awesome in his title role of About a Boy.

Don’t miss A Single Man - especially if you’re a homophobe.  Perhaps the beauty and humanity of this story will put your ignorance to rest once and for all.