A single man (M30)

The year 1962. colin firth, a gay man has lost his lover of 16 years in a car accident. Things being what they were back then, he is a closeted gay man, that is that his class at the university does not know that he is gay and also he was not allowed to attend his lover's funeral, because it was only for family and he was not invited. (he was informed by a cousin of the deceased against the wishes of the parents). (the movie begins with him going to his lover's dead body next to the wrecked car, next to the dead dog, and kisses it goodbye.) It is now 8 months later and he is still in pain. he has various flashbacks of times he spent with his lover- when they met, a particularly day when he begged because he was older that his lover change the record and they argued about it and bantered pleasantly (the lover: as for me I could die right now because I'm happy at this moment. colin is reading metamorphosis and the lover is reading breakfast at tiffany's.) at school that day colin talks about fear (the cuban missile crisis is occurring in the background) when the topic of aldous huxley's book "after many a summer" was supposed to be discussed. one student takes an interest in colin, he's worried about him: he sees colin emptying his desk. colin is in fact carrying around a gun. the student asks for colin's address. (did you sleep with her? the student hangs out with a pretty lass. once, he answers. why just once? i didn't say just once. meaning at one time he slept with her, but no longer has this boy ever had a gay experience before this?) colin meets his neighbors at the bank. the mother and the daughter. daughter: daddy says you're a little light in your loafers, but you don't even wear loafers. want so see charlton heston. she carries around a lizard that they have named ben hur because he kills whatever they put in with him like the coliseum. want to come to a party, the mother asks. no, i'm busy tonight. he buys tanqueray for his visit to juliana moore, a fellow brit. but he empties his deposit box, so that all his possessions will be neatly present on his desk, as will be his tie, with instructions for a windsor knot, and the shirt and suit in which he will be buried in. (oh, yeah. he met a james dean type from spain outside the liquor store, he gives him a twenty and the youngster thought it was a pickup, but he was intent on dying. he bought bullets. the gun store kid says, maybe buy two, one for the little lady. another teacher says you should build a bomb shelter like me. i'm hiding it from the neighbors, so they won't beg to be let in.) he is about to kill himself before visiting juliana, but can't find the proper position in bed or in the bath or in a sleeping bag, and then she calls and he goes over to her house. she is extravagant. he once slept with her, a fact that he tells his lover in a flashback. he went to this woman when first informed of his lover's death. they talk, he leaves, heads home, again is tempted to kill himself, but there is no booze in the house, so he heads to the nearby bar. where the kid from school shows up. they talk. the kid challenges him to go swimming. he says yes. why did you suggest? because you said you'd do any silly thing and I wanted to know if you're full of shit, but you're not. are you? they go in for a swim. colin loses consciousness in the ocean and has cut his head. they go back to colin's. student goes to bathroom to get bandaids and sees a naked photo of the dead lover. we have to get you out of your clothes. he strips, lingers and then showers. they drink some beers. colin wakes up in bed and sees that the student is sleeping on the couch, with the gun, to keep him from killing himself. and then colin takes a look outside, he sees a bird and a perfect moon, and he says that it is a perfect moment and he takes his suicide notes and burns them, and he has achieved enough happiness in the moment to forget about suicide and he has a heart attack and he is about to die and he imagines his lover coming in a black suit and tie and kissing him and he smiles and dies: just like that.

A- (loses a point and a half for the too easy ending) otherwise too serious, not a critique but a warning to the viewer.