Wendy's Films of 2010 #46: A Single Man (2009)

I think that perhaps all designers should create films, especially if they end up being as good as this one. Tom Ford's first and only film to date is wonderful. The visual style is gorgeous, with every shot thoroughly thought through to the smallest detail, like the indents on someone's arm from an object that has supposedly been sitting there for hours. The costumes, of course, were amazing. Everything was stunning, but not in an irritating, pristine kind of way.

One of my first thoughts after watching it was my appreciation of it being a film about a gay man, that doesn't make the fact that he's gay the main focus of the narrative. Instead, it focuses on his emotions, his life, his difficulty in dealing with the loss of a loved one. I wish more films encouraged the idea that being gay isn't the most important thing about a person and his or her life, it just happens to be one aspect of a full and varied individual. Colin Firth's performance is the icing on the cake; his ability to create a character that is not only experiencing an incredible loss, but is also so layered and human, is stunning. I felt like I knew his character George as if he were a real human being. I think this is why his performance was nominated, and perhaps should have even won best actor at this year's Oscars. The rest of the cast: Julianne Moore, Nicholas Hoult, Matthew Goode and Jon Kortajarena, were superb . Definitely check this one out.

Wendy's Films of 2010 #34: What a Girl Wants (2003)

Sometimes people make bad decisions. This was one of mine. My sole explanation is that I was really bored, it was on TV and I have a soft spot for Colin Firth. There really isn't much to say about the film. It's for tweens and little girls who want to discover that they're actually rich little girls who have huge houses in England with pretty rooms and who get to wear fancy hats and meet the queen. I must admit, the idea is quite appealing. Well, in this terrific movie she has all this presented to her and decides all she really wants is to be a normal girl again, with a normal boyfriend and a normal family. It's a very black and white tale, and Amanda Bynes is kind of annoying.

Wendy's Films of 2010 # 19: Easy Virtue (2008)

What started off as a moderately promising story, with its moments of humour and fun turned out to be disappointing both as a romantic comedy and a British period film. Though the costumes were often beautiful and the set exquisitely put together, this didn't make up for the lack of real depth in the film. What could have been a heart-wrenching past during the war for Colin Firth's character, was only lightly touched on and never once did his character think it necessary to explain his increasing detached emtions to his wife (Kristin Scott Thomas). Apart from this substory, Jessica Biel is charming as daughter-in-law Larita Whittaker, and her husband John (Ben Barnes) is boyishly cute, but it's not enough to hold the film together. It doesn't even really work as a conventional "romcom" either, which sort of shuns away a potentially large audience. The film just seems to lack something spectacular, it has potential, but the subplots aren't strong enough and the main dispute between Jessica Biel and her mother in law (Thomas) was too stubborn and dwelled on too much.