tom ford's debut a single man introduces supporting actor nicholas hoult as a mysterious crush-laden university student named kenny. unlike a normative clear cut love interest, his role as pursuer involves a seemingly selfless desire for his professor. fully aware of falconer's (firth) visible depression and in tune with his suicidal loneliness, kenny goes beyond the role of lover - to which he will eventually take- and becomes his spiritual rescuer.
in his attempts at breaking the ice with falconer, kenny not only goes out of his stalkerish way to court his prof (outside falconer's car door) but has air of omnipresence for showing up at the right time and place (a bar around the corner from falconer's home, where presumably he's having his last drink). however, this transcendent characteristic is not limited to spatiality alone.
while ford's lens visually objectifies every pore and follicle of hoult's fountain-of-youth face, kenny's sexual interest in falconer is blurred by observations of a girl-friend and an unclear boundary of appropriate student/teacher behaviour. thereby making kenny, on the surface, solely interested in a deeper beauty; one beyond the skin; one of conversation and partnership; and one that george falconer has been without since the tragic loss of his long-term boyfriend, jim, several years prior. this absence of partnership (and cause of george's closeted/single lifestyle) is crystallized in the "ceremonious" swimming scene right after kenny and falconer have left the bar. kenny has focused his carefree, carpe diem philosophies in a way that falconer has no trouble seeing and ultimately receiving: the once always suited, ever-guarded man of intellect throws caution to the wind (along with his trousers) and has become a bare, emotion-lead man of the moment.
transformed and now headed in a direction of happiness, falconer owes a debt or two of gratitude to his newest lover. not to be mistaken as a simple replacement for his lost love - falconer makes especially clear to one time female lover, charlie (moore), that there is no replacing jim with anybody - kenny is better recognized as a protector and conduit of self-realization, imparting his openness as a guide for falconer to follow. a white light at the end of a dark miserable tunnel.
