Solitary Man (2009)

The story of this movie is only an excuse to introduce sexual addiction where only one individual have sexuality and women appears to pander its sexual desires as main funny puppets. Bad way to describe persons and respectful between persons. So what is the theme on this movie: there is not. No values, no relationship, no arguments, no dialog, no plot. Story is a way to make porn without make porn. Pathetic individual is only a means to insinuate perversions: less$$$=+sexual women made as bitches. The ability of director is to make this mystification: the no-story is an excuse to make a porn movie. A classic scam movie as only Hollywood can promote perversions in its classic way.

You might get through Life pretty much Unscathed if You Indulge in One of the Seven Deadly Sins (Lust), but Two (Greed), probably Unsurmountable. Such is the Case with Michael Douglas in this Character Study about a Very Successful Businessman in the Winter of Discontent.He is on His way Down and Out, but the Silky Charm is still there and a Complete Embrace of Self Confidence. In the Film, He never "looks" like He is Suffering much. However, His Life is in total Freefall.It is a One-Note Movie but its Resonance is Profound and the Cast of Aging Stars and some Quality Newcomers aid a rather Thin Script and Story. It is a Quality Film, with Professionalism and a certain Wit without Cynicism. It is not Layered and is right there on Screen for the Viewer to take in and it is a Smooth Operation to say the Least.The Movie Glides along its way Effortlessly and is Charm with a bit of Bite. In Fact, it is so good You may want more of it. But that is not to be. Its like the best cut of Steak possible, but only Served in 4 ounce Proportions. The enjoyment of this will depend on the amount of Self-Reflection You engage, and will undoubtedly appeal to an Older Audience and the Movie and its Cautionary Tale will most probably be Overlooked by those who would benefit the Most. Those Folks, especially Men, who are still Young Enough.

Long, pointless, rambling movie starring a wizened and disturbingly wrinkled Michael Douglas, as a relentless philanderer who decides to pursue and bed countless young women after his doctor tells him there may be something wrong with his heart.  The hours slowly stumble by as we are subjected to unsavoury images of Douglas 'seducing' countless women, in a bid to show off his 'technique' garnered from years of sexual experience.  As expected, his life ends up in tatters when he can't find work, can't pay the rent, is forbidden contact with his grandson, and is turned down by a woman.  Not really sure what one's meant to make of the anticlimactic, obvious, and rather lazy ending other than that maybe he finally realizes the shallowness of his ways.  Frankly I didn't care what happened to him in the end and felt it would have been more exciting if his heart had exploded in glorious Technicolour.

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.