Colin Firth, to thee we sing: the Brit was named best actor at the Venice Film Festival last Saturday for his turn as a gay, English lit professor in Tom Ford's film adaptation of A Single Man, the Christopher Isherwood novel. And yesterday, the movie was snapped up mere hours after screening at the Toronto Film Festival, immediately sparking Oscar buzz for Firth's performance. (The awards-happy Weinstein Co. bought the movie for between $1 and $2 million.)
Prior to this week, most of A Single Man's buzz has centered around its fashion-designer director, whose retro-sexy aesthetic permeates the trailer (click above to view). But we're more thrilled at what this means for Firth's career. In the past 15 years, the actor has played either an iteration of Mr. Darcy (a character he first immortalized in the BBC's 1995 Pride and Prejudice miniseries), a novelty (dog collar-ed in Mamma Mia!; beret-ed in Girl With a Pearl Earring); or the semitragic, buffoonish Brit (the divorced novelist in Love Actually; Amanda Bynes's shepherd in What a Girl Wants). We can't wait to see him finally stretch his legs.
Also, Matthew Goode. Mmm.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
