Stage and Screen

So, the weekend reviews:

On Friday night I went to see A Single Man. It’s the story of a gay, English man (Colin Firth) who is living in California in the early 60s. He’s lost the love of his life, and has decided without the love, he no longer wants the life either. So you’re following him on the day he has decided to end it all. Overall, the movie is gorgeous and very moving. Given that it’s directed by Tom Ford, the former designer and creative director at Gucci, it’s not surprising that the movie is gorgeous and every period detail is immaculate. The cars, the clothes, the furniture, the cigarettes, everything is vintage and perfectly calibrated for the time and the group of people portrayed. And Colin Firth is amazing. There are several scenes without dialogue or where the words spoken are in sharp contrast to his inner world, and you have no questions about exactly what he’s feeling. My only real issue with the movie, and this is really just a personal taste thing, is that it relies too heavily on literary devices like symbolism and foreshadowing. And I think that’s mainly because it was adapted from a book, and the adapter loved it too much to cut anything. But in a visual medium, symbols are like accessories. You can cha-cha it up too much.

On a side note, this movie had more pure eye candy than I’ve seen in a long time. In addition to the lovely and talented Colin Firth, lots of beautiful boys. Beautiful in a way that a straight male director would never understand. Obviously, no worries about whether this movie would turn off straight guys. Who cares what they think anyway? And for Colin Firth, in the scenes where he’s nude, as far as I could tell, there was no body double. And no need for a body double either. At all. Mr. Firth, I salute you.

Then on Saturday, I went to see the touring company of August Osage County. Wow. What a barn burner. It’s the story of a family in Tulsa, Oklahoma who’d probably laugh themselves silly at the term “dysfunctional”. That’s like saying Ted Bundy was a little bit of a misogynist. Where to begin? This family has it all: alcoholism, drug abuse, cheating, lying, child abuse, ruined marriages. Take your worst family reunion and multiply it by complete psycho. But it has elements that will ring true to anyone who’s even from the most normal family.

My only two concerns came because I’m on the one tour stop where the majority of the audience could pick out the things that just weren’t Oklahoma. Like the accents. Only one character actually sounded like an Okie. And one guy could only possibly have sounded like a native if Poughkeepsie is a suburb of Tulsa that I don’t know about. Another was the lack of an afghan on the couch. DOES NOT HAPPEN IN OKLAHOMA. Ever. And there was the fact that a major plot point revolves around people freaking because a pair of cousins want to get married. If this actually did happen in OK, it would be more like you’d say “I feel the need to point out that Bubba is your cousin.” Then you go look at the gift registry at Wal-Mart. Nothin’ says Oklahoma lovin’ like marrying your cousin. Okay, that’s a little bit of an exaggeration.

Funnily enough, the day after I went to the show, I won tickets. And I’d have gone again. But I decided I’d rather give the tickets to friends, so that we could talk about the dinner scene. Which I won’t ruin for you. Because if you ever get a chance to see this show, you should go. Definitely.