Talkie Zoo: A SINGLE MAN

Not a family movie at all, A Single Man (2009; R) is the heartbreaking story of a gay man (Colin Firth) whose partner has been killed in a car wreck. We watch as he tries to go about his daily business as a professor at a university, all the while grieving and broken inside.

He has friends, even an old girlfriend (Julianne Moore). But nothing will lift him from the blue funk he is sinking ever more deeply into. At one point, it looks as though he will take his own life.

Set in the '60s, his home is tidy and neatly appointed, with high class design including Moen kitchen faucets and lots of glass to let in the California sun. He lays out his personal effects in neat array on a dresser, admonishing the housekeeper to leave them right where he has them. Then he goes to a gun store, buys bullets for his gun, and begins the process of situating himself so that he can put a bullet through his own skull.

So tidy is he, and concerned for the mess that will be made in the house, that he even puts a sleeping bag on the bed and gets in it. However, the ringing phone interrupts his plans...

You'll just have to watch it to know the rest.