Solitary Man is an offbeat bittersweet meditation on morality/mortality starring good ol' Michael Douglas.

It's very deadpan funny and features an unexpected bounty of super talented actors in small supporting roles - - Jenna Fischer, the quiet queen of comedy (check out her filmography, she's been in five(!) classic comedy films) - - Susan Sarandon, Danny DeVito, Mary-Louise Parker , Jesse Eisenberg - - they all add their considerable charms to rounding out the edges of this one man show as memorable characters that he careens between.

This one's kind of out there.

Perhaps it might best be appreciated by those who are starting to catch a glimpse of the accelerating approach of the end of their lives.

Life's short, the end is nigh, see Solitary Man.


15 out of 5.

I agree, Michael Douglas is GREAT in his role, and the entire cast is good as well. One of the smaller characters that really stood out to me was the Parkers daughter in the film. I thought she did a great job as well.

B+

Solitary Man has a solid performance from Michael Douglas in the main role but not much change occurs within the film that the end product doesn't leave much of a mark. Douglas plays Ben Kalman, an old man who is slowly realizing his age and seeing his career over the past few years crumble around him. He tries to stay lively and keep moving forward by trying to earn every dollar possible but all those situations have their consequences. The supporting cast here is not too strong though Jesse Eisenberg and Imogen Poots do make some noticeable marks. Some of the side stories don't really work and their resolutions sometimes are odd or just not there at all. Also the Ben that is at the film at the beginning seems unchanged at the end and the ambiguous end really isn't all that ambiguous. It has a few ups but it can never quite go over the bar. **

Good song, I also like Johnny Cash's version.

Michael Douglas is excellent in this all right film. It's perfect casting. In fact, with Douglas' involvement, this almost plays as an unofficial Wall Street sequel. His character is a once-iconic, now-disgraced businessman who ignores his concerns and failures--an estranged ex-wife and daughter, a potential heart disorder--and refuses to "act his age." The film centers on his several indiscriminate one-night stands, as well as his desperate attempts to reestablish himself in the business world.

Douglas gets a chance to deconstruct and expand upon the confident, masculine, and modern persona he developed in the '80s and '90s (Fatal Attraction, Basic Instinct, The Game, and, of course, as Gordon Gekko). It's an entertaining, at times poignant performance and feels rather brave. The extensive supporting cast provide Douglas with solid support, though I wish their characters were granted more development (this film, without end credits, runs less than 90 minutes--it could have stood an extra ten to fifteen minutes, at least). Consider Jesse Eisenberg's role as a neurotic college student who Douglas' character befriends and teaches the art of flirting. Eisenberg is charming and sensitive, but the role feels underdeveloped. We see him once in the first act, and then we see him near the end of the film; we're told Eisenberg's character has so much respect for Douglas' solitary man, as if the latter is a virile father figure, but the friendship rings false because we just don't see enough of it. This is true of every peripheral character, including ones played by Susan Sarandon--as the ex-wife--and Danny DeVito--as an old friend.

Besides the short shrift treatment of what could have been rich supporting characters, the writing is fairly sharp, Douglas' whip-smart, egotistical dialogue in particular. Behind the camera, David Levien and Brian Koppelman's best directorial decision is to stay out of the way. There are no distracting stylistic flourishes to steal our attention away from Douglas' magnetic turn.

B