I watched the film “A Single Man” this weekend. I really enjoyed the film, so much so that I also watched the video extra about making the film. Tom Ford, the famous designer who made his directorial debut with this film, talked about this story as essentially a man’s opportunity to enjoy every single moment of the day he plans as the last of his life. For those of you who haven’t seen the film, the main character’s long term partner has just died in an auto accident and, since the story is set in 1962, he must grieve privately since no one — certainly not his dead partner’s family, but to a certain extent not even his best friend — understand who he is or the magnitude of the loss he just experienced. So, this late-middle-age British English professor has decided to end his life.
We know this from nearly the beginning of the movie, which focuses on the events of this one day. He wakes up, dresses meticulously, and pulls a revolver out of a locked drawer and places it in his briefcase. Every single moment, from that one until the last scene, is about the joy that can be found in the simplest of moments in every day life.
Yes, big things create lasting memories, but sometimes small things do, too. One of the most touching scenes in the film is a flashback memory he has of sitting on the sofa with his partner quietly reading books while listening to some jazz in the background. The dog is at their feet, of course. The simple exchange between these men who have, by this point, been together a long time, shows in every word, every look, and the shared laugh over the dog’s antics with one of the neighbors.
Capturing the joy of those simple moments is what made this film a great story. Similarly, it is those little details that make our favorite books the ones we choose to pick up and reread, or to at least mark favorite passages that we return to time and again because they capture some simple essence of life that makes us smile. Those moments are key because they add so much to the atmosphere of the story. We want to be there with them, and are for at least that brief moment of escape.
