A Single Man
Weinstein Company, The | Release Date: December 11, 2009 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
77
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 35 Critic Reviews
Positive:
32
Mixed:
2
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
Some films aren't revelations, exactly, but they burrow so deeply into old truths about love and loss and the mess and thrill of life, they seem new anyway. A Single Man is one such film, one of the best of 2009 Read full review
100
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike Scott
A singularly enjoyable and moving film. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Firth plays him as a man of his time who is also mournfully ahead of his time. He's addicted to his own broken heart. A Single Man may break yours as well. Read full review
91
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
It’s a film of stunning beauty and deep underlying sadness, a self-financed labor of love filled with impossibly gorgeous, oft-unclothed men and dazzling eye candy. Read full review
90
TimeRichard Corliss
Tom Ford -- the Texas-born fashion designer who for a decade was the creative director at Gucci -- financed this first feature himself. The producer couldn't have hired a smarter director. Read full review
90
VarietyLeslie Felperin
Like the speck of sand that seeds a pearl, it’s the tiny fleck of kitsch at the heart of “A Single Man” that makes it luminous and treasurable, despite its imperfections. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesBetsy Sharkey
For the most part, Ford has done good by the film, infusing a sad story with warmth and humor to spare. While loss is what makes George's experience universal, heart is what gives him such life. Read full review
90
NPRBob Mondello
An exquisite, almost sensual grief suffuses every frame of A Single Man. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
Everything fits perfectly, from titles to fin, but most of all Firth, who dons the role of George like a fine bespoke suit. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter Travers
The film belongs to Firth. Uncanny at showing the heart crumbling under George's elegant exterior, he gives the performance of his career. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy Burr
There’s a lot, in fact, that keeps this film from greatness. One performance alone recommends it. That’s enough. Read full review
88
Orlando SentinelRoger Moore
An exquisite character study in grief. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
Built around Firth’s fine work, A Single Man is a handsome film that, like its slender source novel, is stylish, quiet and sure. Read full review
80
NewsweekDavid Ansen
A Single Man's sleek surface may go against Isherwood's crisp, understated prose, yet the story's beating, wounded heart and its spiky intelligence still come through, personified in Firth's moving, eloquently internalized performance. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterDeborah Young
Sensitive and stylish. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
The striking directorial debut from fashion designer Tom Ford -- is so unusually beautiful it would be easy to dismiss it as superficial. Read full review
80
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
While A Single Man has its flaws, many of these fade in view of the performance and the power of Isherwood’s story. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill Goodykoontz
It relies on a singularly brilliant performance by Colin Firth to make it one of the year's more satisfying films. Read full review
80
EmpireIan Freer
It sounds like a downer but A Single Man is exciting, emotionally alive filmmaking, a potent cocktail of style and substance. And Firth thoroughly deserves the Oscar. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Though the deliberate pace can feel slow to glacial at times, the visuals are gorgeous, and the melancholy mood is exquisitely evoked. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
It's hard to sell people on a movie about grief, but A Single Man deserves recognition for being about something real that usually goes unexplored: The grief from which there really can be no return. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
Then again, Colin Firth is enough. Every movie is a performance, but very seldom is a performance a movie. Read full review
75
New York PostLou Lumenick
Truth be told, Firth's transcendent performance in A Single Man renders that stylistic gimmick utterly unnecessary -- Firth provides all the emotional color this movie needs, and then some. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Firth plays George superbly, as a man who prepares a face to meet the faces that he meets. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Despite its downbeat theme, A Single Man is ultimately optimistic about the human capability to gradually make peace with seemingly insurmountable pain and tragedy. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
How fitting that Firth should carry A Single Man, a movie of quiet but potent emotional power, perfectly suited to his singular gifts. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe Williams
In a movie of murky surfaces and deep loneliness, the redemptive surprise of A Single Man is how it becomes a clear endorsement of the Buddy System. Read full review
70
The New YorkerAnthony Lane
The film is slowed by its own beauty, but it is salvaged by two majestic scenes. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderStaff (Not credited)
A romantic tale of love interrupted the isolation that is an inherent part of the human condition and ultimately the importance of the seemingly smaller moments in life. Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
It’s a dirgelike odyssey sparked by Julianne Moore’s overheated turn as George’s best friend – a welcome respite from Firth’s clenched emoting. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
A Single Man tells us about love, isolation, and sorrow, but never makes us feel any of those things. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
A Single Man is like a big coffee table book on grief, loneliness, and loss - and mid-20th-century home design. Read full review
60
SalonStephanie Zacharek
It doesn't matter if the movie around Firth is a good one or a lousy one: Either way, I wouldn't be able to explain how an actor could come up with a performance as subtle, in both its heartbreak and its magnificence, as this one is. Read full review
50
Village VoiceScott Foundas
A Single Man, with one significant exception, gives us only a series of immaculate poses. The exception is Firth, who, in spite of Ford's best efforts to turn him, too, into another piece of movable scenery, manages to convey a real human soul stirring beneath George's petrified façade Read full review
20
Time OutKeith Uhlich
Christopher Isherwood’s seminal queer novel deserves a film adaptation that captures both its sense of place and its activist spirit. Cowriter-director Tom Ford settles for the glossy ephemera of a Vanity Fair cover spread. Read full review
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