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| Consumer Advice | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Contains suicide theme, moderate threat, drug references and nudity | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Summary | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| George, an English professor at a Californian college, tries to come to terms with the tragic death of Jim, his partner of sixteen years. Consumed by grief and tempted to take his own life, he looks for salvation in his students and friends. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Extended Classification Information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
'A Single Man' is a drama about a man dealing with the grief of losing his long-time lover in a fatal car crash. The film contains suicide theme, moderate threat, drug references and nudity.
The theme of suicide, central in this film, is handled in a sensitive manner. The film is a provocative and meaningful exploration of the human experience of grief and the central character, having been on the verge of committing suicide, ultimately makes the choice not to do so. The strongest scene comes when he lies on his bed and puts the barrel of the gun in his mouth, but is then seen changing position on the bed, changing the angle of the gun, standing up, and finally even zipping himself up inside a sleeping bag before being finally interrupted by the telephone ringing. Although there is a serious issue here, there is an element of the faintly ridiculous. The younger teenager is unlikely to find a point of reference either with the character who is a mature adult or with the dated historical setting, and this is not a form of suicide that is overly accessible to a vulnerable younger person. The internal debate around feelings of despair and the human spirit to conquer them is a valid one that younger teens will be familiar with in other contexts. With regard to the drugs, there is a discussion of the hallucinogen 'mescaline'. A student, who has enthused about the experience, asks his teacher if he ever took drugs. He confirms he did, but it resulted in him behaving stupidly. The overall message is that the experience was not one he wished to repeat or thought in any way funny or trivial. There are a couple of scenes which include sexualised nudity, without any actual sex taking place. Men are seen naked in full rear view and in the presence of another man looking on with an undercurrent of sexual desire. Additionally there are some scenes which show characters smoking in a mildly seductive way, but these are glamorised only within a period setting and by mature adults who are unlikely to appeal to the younger viewer. No-one younger than 12 may see a '12A' film in a cinema unless accompanied by an adult. No-one younger than 12 may rent or buy a '12' rated video or DVD. Responsibility for allowing under-12s to view lies with the accompanying or supervising adult. |
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