Tom Ford's film debut

All in all, a very good first film.

It was beautiful as expected from one of fashion's contemporary icons; the use of color contrast to symbolize life/emotion was definitely well-crafted, as were the visuals generally. (think of the use of red in Wong Kar-wai's In the Mood for Love or the use of green in Hitchcock's Vertigo).

Colin Firth did a very solid job with the role and his acting was subtle in a film that was not otherwise subtle. But it's still a solid addition to thoughtful LGBT-themed cinema, and I hope it will receive at least some Academy Award buzz.

The script dragged in places, but I was less annoyed by that -- you'd expect the college kid to have some trite dialogue -- than by some of the cheap plays for audience emotion; Tom Ford could do with a little nuance in his next film. Perhaps surprisingly, the exploitation was more emotional than sexual. I loved the Carlos scene -- you'd also expect a fashion designer to have one scene with a model that oozes sexuality, and it was otherwise a fun respite from the heaviness -- but I wasn't impressed with the heartstring-pulling, such as using cute doggies (and other tricks) to get cheap emotional responses from the audience. The difficult "anything you can self-pity, I can self-pity better" scene with Colin and Julianne worked because its ugliness forced us, as an audience, to question the emotional complicity we've been developing with Colin's character.

I did like that, early on, he wasn't afraid to embrace the awkwardness of absolute silence - no dialogue, no music. The soundtrack, however, was effective and haunting.

The Hitchcock/Almodovar nod was cute but not too cute (think of Bertolucci's flop, The Dreamers).

Also one of the best period films about Los Angeles I've seen lately.