Christopher Isherwood’s short 1964 novel A Single Man is a superb choice for a concise, intimate film. Its events are few, its emotional power is cumulative. The book visits one day in the life of George, a gay British expat and middle-aged literature teacher in 1962 Los Angeles. We learn gradually that George lost his younger partner, Jim, in a car crash and discover much later that this is a significant day for George, a slow reveal that gives the text a random, quotidian quality.

Tom Ford turns the book on its head so that we know both these things from the start. But other than that, the book’s interior nature and sense of wandering remain in Ford’s delicate, moving film. We follow George (Colin Firth) closely, often alone, from morning to night. We watch as he gives a lesson on Aldous Huxley and join him on a drunken evening at the home of his soulmate and compatriot, Charlotte (Julianne Moore). Later, we’re with him during a late-night flirtation with a pupil, Kenny (Nicholas Hoult). And, in flashback, we see snapshots of his earlier, happier life with Jim (Matthew Goode).

The film looks gorgeous; maybe it is too pristine. In this world, dust doesn’t land, paint doesn’t peel and grass doesn’t grow. George’s black-and-white suit-and-tie combo is too perfect and his house is a modernist dream. His partner was an architect, we’re told. His director is a fashion designer, we’re thinking. But nothing distracts from the empathy and understanding we have for George, and on that the film must live or die. Firth’s portrayal of a man repressing his grief while being unable to repress his instinct for love and for life is excellent and moving, while Ford’s balancing of depth and surface is precarious but ultimately winning.

Dave Calhoun

From Time Out London

Dir Tom Ford, Category IIB, 101 mins, opens Thursday 11