Solitary Man (2009)

You won't be disappointed!

This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Let me say right away that I am not generally a fan of dramas, of the story of someone destroying their life, or recovering it. However I found something about this movie mesmerizing. My guess is that it was the lack of sentimentality I found so appealing. The main character was not a cartoonishly evil villain, but neither did was he villain with a heart of gold. I don't want to say that he was realistic in that he represented the behavior of a large number of men; rather he came across as a very real example of a particular class of men. And likewise for all the other characters --- all portrayed with sympathy, and as real human beings, not archetypes. My one complaint was with the ending. It's not that I dislike the ambiguity: does our hero choose love or sex? It's that, after the richness of everything that has gone before, the understanding of the complex motives that drive people to do foolish things, even as they know they are foolish (and, also, sometimes, to do beautiful things), the choice that is presented is so simple-minded. The implication is that, sure, this guy can, after six years of being a dick, just decide that this phase of his life is over, it's time to go back to being a decent guy, and everyone else around him will just accept the change. It's a jarring piece of garbage sentimentality which ruins the rest of the movie. How could the ending have been handled better? I think at the very least, the musings at the end about why he did what he did could have been augmented with some acknowledgment of the larger picture, something like thoughts on the difference between what we like and what we want, or how hard it is to not simply reach out for what you want, even after plenty of experience has taught you it's not what makes you happy. I'm trying to avoid saying something trite, which implies our hero has learned a deep and valuable lesson from his experiences, while also trying to suggest that he's not a complete fool, that he can look back on his life and connect the dots. But the ending is (of course) only one part of a movie; and I have very little to complain about the rest.

In my view this was not ready for a breakdown let alone shoot. The script needed at least six more months of rewrites.Because of this even though the idea is great and the same cast would easily do it much better justice if the screenplay was ready and if the direction allowed them a little bit more freedom.Characters seem to be outlines, barely painted with broad strokes, flat, unfinished. Director did not give the actors freedom they needed to salvage the situation and perhaps they didn't feel like investing themselves deeper into the film, perhaps realizing the screenplay is not ready for the prime time.The story also need3ed further development, because on screen it comes off as flat and doesn't suck you in, characters are shallow and two faced at the very least, their actions are disconnected.What could be a fantastic scene between two of my favorite actors(Douglas and Poots) is very flat, in big part due to writing and direction but actors didn't invest themselves in it either, it's very cut and dry and I don't think the range of both character's actions in other places in the film makes it stick.The ending which could easily be my favorite type of ending failed to realize it's potential as well, this would be due to direction and cinematography, both distant and not really supporting the crucial moment.Biggest problem is the unpolished writing, characters are merely stereotypical outlines, I would like to believe the exact same cast could do a million times better just six months of rewrites later.

Solitary Man (2009)Michael Douglas is a wonder in this film. You could by a cynic and say that the arrogant, energetic, womanizing, aging man here is just Michael Douglas, and that it's not acting at all.But that's unfair, because he pulls it off with such responsive ease, it's a wonder. Not that he's a likable person. In fact, that's one of the things to get used to, having to watch a lecherous old man push and connive his way into a night with one young woman after another. It's actually the director and writer to blame, here, because this is a tired and abusive theme. As if all these old timers are really so irresistible !? (I'm thinking Clint Eastwood, here, too). Sorry, dudes, but these young women have much better meat to hunker down with. I mean, the real Douglas and the real Eastwood have that star power thing that might be true in real life--I can imagine wanting to say I slept with Michael Douglas the rest of my life, maybe. Maybe. But Michael Douglas plays a big time car salesman here, not himself, and he's already an aging loser by the time the movie begins, convicted of felonies, estranged with most of his family and previous life. That's the essence of the title, that this once connected man with the world before him was increasingly alone. And there seemed to be little he could do about it.As aggravating as all this is--you don't ever feel sorry for him--it's a sharply witty screenplay and the editing is fast, the acting first rate. In fact, it's in many ways a good movie. It's a contrivance, for sure, and pushes too hard, but in the same ways, so did "The Blind Side" with the extraordinary acting of Sandra Bullock. So we have here a worthwhile movie despite all its flaws, some of them pretty obvious. And Danny DeVito is his usual self, well cast (hate to say) as a deli owner.But there is no escaping a larger point or two. First of all, Douglas is a predator who seems to get away with it all, which is sort of okay, but his former wife, played in a brief role by Susan Sarandon, has to take on that most horrible or roles--the ever forgiving wife, waiting for her man despite his really extensive selfishness and downright meanness. And then there is the nearly impossible scenario of the daughter of his current girlfriend suddenly losing all resistance to the man. But I say too much. This daughter, by the way, is played with more artistry than her role probably required by an impressive Imogen Poots. She's worth keeping a watch on.But Michael Douglas is the bread, the butter, and the dessert here. He appears in every scene, and his acting is perfect. And his character does represent a problem for older men (and women) losing some kind of sexual aura (and ability). And so the man copes, in his own excessive way. Brace yourself for the other stuff, and watch him roll.

Directors David Levien and Barry Kopelman (from Kopelman's script) give the best possible thing they could for Michael Douglas: to play someone who makes a living at playing. In a sense this is a return to a character like Gordon Gecko, who is a bigger than life guy, only this time he's knocked down by a bunch of pegs. He's done some criminal things as "The Only Honest Car Dealer" around, and he's let down his daughter and grandson in more ways than one (mostly by, as usually the case with family, not being there), and he's a hopeless womanizer, who uses his skills as a car salesman to hone in on what makes woman, uh, want him I guess. And this gets him in more hot water, especially when he seduces family friends and even the 18 year old daughter of his current girlfriend. His daughter thinks he has a psychological disorder and needs help. In reality, I think he's just an aging Casanova, way in over his head after years of skating on success.Douglas plays this guy, Ben Kalmen, a man who has his name on top of a library at a university up in Boston as he donated all that money, like a man who knows everything and nothing at the same time. He's a consummate people person, can charm the pants off anyone, seduce most women, but is clueless in seeing the errors in his ways over time. Douglas would come back to play this, perhaps now in retrospect redundantly, this very year with Wall Street 2, only in that case given a boost up by actually serving jail time. Ben hasn't been to jail, per- say. He's been in his own solitary-made prison (hence the title). Does he like that? It is what it is, he says at one point.I love watching Douglas be able to make a character look interesting even when (perhaps, admittedly) it looks as if he's just playing 'himself', or how we might picture Michael Douglas to be in, well, if not real life kind of like his 'movie-life' if that makes sense (kind of like how George Clooney puts on a persona that seems like "him"). He actually elevates a script that is good but not very ambitious with where it wants to take its characters. It's very straightforward about where it's going, which is the comeuppance of a man who has done too much in his life to screw over women, screw over family, screw over competition. By the end it's even questionable whether he'll even have a home exactly.But in a way I, as I'm sure we all, enjoy watching Douglas being a kind of cool-hand jerk, oily and suave and such a playboy that he can charm even in a t-shirt lent by mentee Jesse Eisenberg. Unfortunately the humbling period isn't quite as cathartic as that in another Douglas vehicle, also compared by other critics, of Wonder Boys. That had a lot more going on with its supporting characters, while here those around him are soundboards, telling him what's going on with him, where he's gone wrong, or in a few exceptions (Eisenberg, De Vito) on his side but cautious as friends and allies. It's a good character study though not a very good drama, if that might make sense. I suppose ultimately this and Wall Street 2 would make the better combination; neither film reaches greatness, but they'll do as Golden-Age prime-rib roles for its star, who is magnetic, humorous, touching, engaging, and, thankfully, sympathetic to a degree. And there's a lot of fun to be had too, thank goodness.