Solitary Man (2010)

The film follows Michael Douglas as he comes to grips, or doesn't, with his age and the fact that his personal life as passed him by. The movie begins with Douglas receiving the news that he needs some test performed on his heart because his doctor has some concerns. Time then flashes forward six years, where Douglas is now divorced with a daughter in her early 30s (played expertly by Jenna Fischer), a grandson who is five, and a girlfriend (Mary Louise Parker) who he is using for her father's power. Hints are dropped that Douglas was involved in some sort of scam that caused him to lose his extremely profitable business and threw him into a scandal that destroyed his reputation. The rising action begins when Douglas must escort his girlfriend's daughter to his alma mater for the weekend. While in Boston, Douglas makes a terrible decision that threatens to unravel whatever life he has left.

Though this film received little attention, I thought that it was absolutely excellent and worth an Oscar nomination (being that they're handing them out willy nilly now). Susan Saradon plays Douglas' ex and does so expertly with just the perfect amount of anger, pity, and old love. Douglas plays the philandering 60+ year old who still thinks he's 20 perfectly. The end of the movie leaves people guessing, but can also be used as a conversation starter and had me thinking about the film long after I left the theater.

Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program No one does loathsome charm like Michael Douglas! In a career filled with oily characters, Ben Kalmen is easily one of the more reprehensible creations that Douglas has fleshed out. Seemingly without one redemptive character trait, "Solitary Man" doesn't shy away from the ugliness, desperation, and fear that fuel Kalmen's self destructive bent. And as much as you may despise the man, Douglas manages to convey enough humanity and humor to keep you hoping for more. It's an intricately balanced role and Douglas deftly handles its challenges. If you're not with Douglas for good and bad, than you will likely find "Solitary Man" quite unpleasant. Douglas had me, however, and backed by a solid and wildly appealing supporting cast--"Solitary Man" became an amusingly direct look at a man dealing with his own mortality.

With a brief introduction, we meet Douglas as a successful man facing a possible health crisis. Fast forward six years. Douglas is now broke, unemployed and practically unemployable due to a scandal, divorced, and carrying on with a woman for her business connections. He's an aging lothario who seems to be actively working to estrange himself from his family and his closest friends. The thought of not living life on his own terms has caused him to systematically deconstruct everything that was once successful and lovable about his old persona. Douglas is fearless as I mentioned above and his trysts with younger, and some patently inappropriate, women range from comical to quite unsettling. Douglas ultimately does have to start addressing his shortcomings, but is it too little and too late?

While Douglas may be difficult to like--he is certainly surrounded by a plethora of people who still care. The film shines in its supporting cast. I'd single out Jenna Fischer (TV's "The Office") as Douglas's daughter who in many ways is the heart of this piece and Jesse Eisenberg as a youth idolizing Douglas who is the hope of the film. Both are terrific--perhaps Fischer's best work to date. Mary-Louise Parker, Danny Devito and Susan Sarandon also lend solid support. Ultimately, "Solitary Man" may be too slight for some viewers--there are no big declarations and/or revelations. As a character study, it is a fascinating look at a flawed individual making bad choices in order to feel relevant and alive. To see this cast at work, that's all I needed! Not for everyone--but those that like "Solitary Man" will like it a lot. KGHarris 9/10.

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"Solitary Man," stars Michael Douglas, who plays Ben Kalman, a middle-aged man whose annual physical triggers a self-centered need to recreate his youth. He throws off all responsibilities in his life. He was a very successful luxury car dealer, happily married and set for life. The doctor's recommendation to have more tests on his heart shocks him visibly with fear of dying. He does not want to know more or take tests to find out what the diagnosis is.

Over the next six-and-a-half years, Ben transforms into an unappealing pathetic soul as one by one friends and family cut him off. He continues begging people for money and jobs, plus finds time to get into complicated sexual situations with a friend of his daughter as well as the daughter of the woman he is currently dating. His career in a mess and he is a loser with every woman he meets. He cannot find pleasure in positive things, and in the end he is alone, a "Solitary Man."

Somehow Douglas makes this unappealing character real, and the movie is a fascinating drama-comedy.

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"Don't know that I will but until I can find me

A girl who'll stay and won't play games behind me

I'll be what I am

A solitary man

A solitary man"

Neil Diamond

It has been said that the role of Ben Kalman was made for Michael Douglas. Could be, there are similarities of the behaviors from what I have read. However, Michael Douglas made this man, Ben Kalman come to life. No doubt, no question.

Ben Kalman has always been the man in the middle of the room, that everyone stared at. The man everyone wanted to know. As a car dealer, he built a business that was the best in New York State. He appeared on the covers of all the right magazines and all the right television shows. Until that day when a physician told him he had something not quite right on his electrocardiogram. He had already started to feel invisible. I think he meant that all the attention was no longer on him. So, he became a real lady's man, bedding whatever female he met. This led to a divorce from the only woman, he ever really loved, Nancy, played by Susan Sarandon. And, he became an absent father to his daughter, Susan, played by Jenna Fischer. But, of course, daughters forgive and she is in and out of his life. Ben has an affair with a rich woman, Mary-Louise Parker. Her father has strings and can open avenues for a new car dealership. Her daughter, wants to go to the same college Ben did in Boston and Ben brings her there to talk with the Dean and smooth things out. As things fall apart, so does Ben. But, as always, he thinks he can charm his way out of anything. In the end, Ben has to make decisions, and does he make the right ones?

A film of a man who is alone, lonely, fills his life with younger woman, wine and song. He forgets what matters in life, and even though his best friend, Danny Devito, tells him like it is, Ben doesn't see. Michael Douglas plays Ben as the man everyone wants to be, the man who would beg for rent money from his daughter, and finally as the man who needs to face himself. Probably one of Michael Douglas's best performances. He was a contender!

Highly Recommended. prisrob 09-23-10

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SOLITARY MAN is either a depressing movie or a movie about a depressing society until the film is over and afterthoughts dredge up memories of very similar people. Then it simply becomes a Greek tragedy. Writer Brian Koppelman introduces a character that is all charm and façade who begins to take himself seriously (believing the false front that has lead him to a 'successful' life) after a routine physician's check up reveals an abnormal EKG. Facing the ultimate fragility of life and the insight that his last years may be approaching more rapidly than he ever thought possible, our 'hero' begins a downhill skid and the effects. It is a march that is sad to watch, but due to the sensitivity of directors Brian Koppelman and David Levien and to the impressive performance by Michael Douglas, it stays imprinted on the brain long after the film's subtle ending fades.

Ben Kalman (Michael Douglas) is the person of interest in this story, a man who six years prior to the opening of the film is informed of his mortality, and in the last six years this car dealer has gone form disposing of his honest reputation to the point of participating in scams, being arrested, bedding every 19 year old girl he can, losing his money, divorcing his wife (Susan Sarandon), losing the respect of his daughter (Jenny Fischer) whose husband requests she not see her father nor expose their son to him, cheating on his girlfriend with important family ties (Mary Louise Parker) by inappropriate activity with her daughter (Imogen Poots), and being refused financing despite his friend (Ben Schenkman) attempts on his behalf. He finally ends up on the campus where he met his wife, meets a shy student (Jesse Eisenberg) and in attempting to give him lessons about how to attract women unveils an even more ugly aspect of his position, and finally meets up with his only friend from college days the local pub man (Danny DeVito) who may never have reached the heights of Ben but has remained an honest and caring friend. How all of these errors of judgment and despicable behavior catch up with him frames an ending for the film one that leaves the audience to decide if he has indeed learned form his missteps.

Not a happy story and while billed as a comedy/drama, it is the drama that usurps the comedy. Michael Douglas hands this role with complete involvement: would that we could only care about his character. The stars attached to the cast give excellent cameos. For a 'downer' film it is well done. Grady Harp, September 10

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