It’s no surprise that the feature film directing debut of fashion designer Tom Ford is a thing of heart-stopping beauty. He celebrates the male form with a sensual reverence. He uses colour with the visual articulacy of Wong Kar Wai and frames his shots with elegance and wit. It looks like a Wallpaper magazine photo shoot styled by Douglas Sirk. But what is a little more unexpected, certainly for those who were suspicious of Ford’s background in the ephemeral world of fashion, is that this is no frothy, throwaway piece of pretty silliness. Rather it’s a work of emotional honesty and authenticity which announces the arrival of a serious filmmaking talent. There will be critics who will be unable to get past the director’s background, but rest assured: Tom Ford is the real deal.

Ford’s decision to adapt Christopher Isherwood’s A Single Man shows that he is not shy of a challenge. Isherwood’s novel charts a day in the life of George Falconer, a recently-bereaved gay college lecturer in early 1960s LA. The book unfolds predominantly through an interior monologue, a device which is notoriously tricky to transfer to the big screen without resorting to pages of cumbersome voice-over. Ford sidesteps this by keeping the narration to a minimum and instead giving us vivid little glimpses into George’s bruised psyche with some well-chosen flashbacks.

Ford brings one major change to the material. Rather than wander from encounter to encounter through the day, his George is given a purpose – a suicide he plans for with the same precision and impeccable good taste that he brings to everything else in his life. Knowing that this might be his last day on earth, George sees the quotidian banalities of his day to day life with fresh eyes and a new appreciation. The nearness of death makes him more alive than he has been for months. To convey this, Ford warms the colour. George’s grief and loneliness is grey but he rediscovers the world in saturated technicolor. It’s an effective technique but could have done with being dialled down a little, perhaps more subliminal than overt.

In the role of George, Colin Firth gives one of the finest, most affecting performances of his career. Two moments stand out: a flashback to the fateful telephone call which told him of his lover Jim’s death. The camera rests steadily on his face as his world crumbles. It’s a devastating piece of acting. And there’s a lovely little detail later in the film – George buries his face in the fur of a terrier puppy, recapturing the sense memory of doggy smells and happier days spent with Jim and their own pets. More than anything, it’s Ford’s eye for evocative details like this that makes A Single Man such an impressive debut.

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