This is California in the 1960s, before anyone dreamed of codifying domestic partnership, and the punishing reality of that fact hits hard in the scene. Firth is somehow able to register all of it - his grief, his regret, his powerlessness.
It's good stuff, and a big reason that Firth is a shoo-in for a best-actor nomination this year. And yet, like some other standout moments this year, it registers much more strongly than the picture as a whole.
"A Single Man" is the directorial debut of Tom Ford, who seems eager to announce his arrival with a lot of fancy edits and slick camera moves, techniques that often step on what the actors are trying to do.
In Firth's case, it's delivering a portrait of a man who's going quietly suicidal - meticulously planning his exit, laying out his clothes, tying up his affairs at the bank and the university.
And trying desperately to avoid another relationship. For a shy fellow, Firth's character has extremely good luck with handsome men - first Goode, then a Spanish prostitute, and, throughout, a persistent and vapid blond student.
Even women are insistent. He arranges a final dinner with an old friend (Julianne Moore) who believes he's capable of hetero marriage, despite years of evidence to the contrary.
Everyone he meets, perhaps even the fates themselves, seem to be trying to persuade the professor to choose life, even a life of grief, over death.
There is a cool irony to the conclusion, but Ford, a little too eager to be noticed, tips the moment with a profusion of foreshadowing.
