Julianne Moore is apparently reprising (or at least recasting) her role as a gorgeous redhead romantically (and frustratingly) attracted to a repressed gay man. The previous outing (no pun intended) was, of course, “Far From Heaven,” in which her surly, whiskey-drenched, gay husband was played manfully by Dennis Quaid.
This time around, Moore is chasing the attentions of Colin Firth. The movie is “A Single Man,” sourced from a Christopher Isherwood novel with the same title. I haven’t read the book, so I can’t say much about the story. The trailer didn’t enlighten me much, either: it doesn’t contain a single line of dialogue or voice-over. What it does contain is a number of quick cuts that reveal an elegant sense of shot composition. And no wonder, the film was helmed by first time director, Tom Ford.
In case you didn’t know, Tom Ford is a big deal fashion designer. Frankly, I didn’t know. A bit of quick research told me that he was raised in Houston and Santa Fe, and educated at N.Y.U. and The New School, where he took a degree in architecture. After college, he moved quickly into the fashion world, where he eventually saved Gucci from a fate worse than K-Mart.
The trailer scenes look like animated fashion spreads peeled from the pages of Vogue. There’s an obvious fashion photographer’s sensibility at work here. (One is reminded of the early Kubrick, who, after all, began his career as a Look shooter.) The color palate is largely sepia-toned, with glaring exceptions: the women’s ensembles are all in rich, primary colors, with lipstick to match. An old fashion photographer’s trick, no doubt: make the background muted and bland, so that the model stands out like neon.
Whether the full-length film will stand out is another question. I have my suspicions that while the Ford might have earned full marks for his visual sense, his narrative skills might not be of the same caliber. At any rate, the trailer makers have decided to keep the dialogue a surprise. Or perhaps Ford has gone for a retro effect, and shot a silent film.
