A Single Man
This movie is about a professor who is a gay man. He lost his male partner in a car accident, and life after that became unbearable for him. He decided that he wanted to end his life and made all the arrangements to do so quietly. Life has managed to keep him around for some interesting interactions with his surroundings. This film has been written and executed in an elegant and philosophical way. One can clearly see the attention to details and the educational intentions in it. I highly recommend this movie and will watch it again. This movie portrays gay men in a realistic way. It shows the different stereotypical perceptions of how gay men are or behave. It shows how gay men can be as a masculine man, a young “beautiful” man, a sophisticated rich man or a playful seducing man. I saw this demonstration as strength in the portrayal of the subject. Other strength was, in my opinion, the absence of physical sexual scenes. This caught me off guard as I was thinking in a stereotypical way during the movie; which was the expectation of random sex altercation because of the moral stigma myth associated with gay men (which is a part of this class material). Showing loyalty in gay men relationship was a key element in the movie. Seeing the deep connection and meaning in this couple’s relationship was put in a very realistic way; and it was a strong message rejecting the idea of mere physical fulfillment myth associated with gay men.
A weakness was the idea of too emotional weak personality that gay men can be despite their intelligence, age and level of education. The idea of suicide after a partner dies sent a non-complementing and pathological image on gay men. Another weakness, in my opinion, was the idea of possible weak boundaries and risk of inappropriate behavior from gay men when it comes to sexual attraction. This was portrayed in the series of interactions between the professor and his young student.