(2009)

Submitted by Mary C

George (Colin Firth) is a college professor in 1960’s Los Angeles whose partner of 16 years Jim (Matthew Goode) died suddenly in a car crash.  It being the 1960s, no one around him knows that Jim was George’s lover (Jim’s parents didn’t even call to tell George he had died), and George is left totally isolated and in intense grief. Several months after the accident, George has decided to commit suicide and the film takes place over the course of a day as he goes about setting his affairs in order, secretly saying goodbye to the people around him.

After dinner with his one friend who knows who Jim was, Charley (Julianne Moore), George goes home to find one of his students, Kenny (Nicholas Hoult), has followed him. Kenny too feels isolated and different and has decided George is a kindred spirit.  George does not take Kenny up on his curious advances, but lets him sleep on his couch. He comes out in the middle of the night to find that Kenny has found his gun and taken it so as to prevent George from committing suicide.  Having finally come to terms with his grief, George decides not to kill himself and clears away the paperwork he has left out detailing his final wishes. He goes back to his bedroom where he has a heart attack.  As he lies dying on the floor, Jim appears in the room and kisses him.