Review of Solitary Man (2009) by Tim M — 07 Sep 2010

Solitary Man isn't afraid to try to fill in all the satisfying elements the audience member craves when giving a film a shot. Usually when films try to do all of it, it's a complete flop, but Solitary Man finds a good balance. It's a bit sad without overdoing it, it's funny when it wants to be, and it isn't melodramatic or anything when dealing with the drama.

In Solitary Man, Ben (Michael Douglas) is a middle aged man who previously had it all, but then watches his personal and professional life take turns for the worse because of his decisions, mainly consisting of his continual flirtations and sexual experiences with woman much younger than him.

This kind of movie is peculiar. They only give you one viewpoint to experience this story from: his. Douglas is in I think every scene, and I gotta say that's quite a risk to be taking on the makers' point. When a movie entirely revolves around one character specifically, then that one actor needs to give it their all, or else it can be disastrous. In this case, Douglas is able to pull it off, and because of that, the plot seems more realistic and given room to breathe.

Michael Douglas is known for playing these successful, wealthy, and honestly quite greedy men. This role that he plays extends on that role, and shows what that man might go through if he lost it all. How would he deal with it. Douglas' performance is top-notch, and he embodies this character so well that you have no choice but to assume that must be the correct interpretation of that character. He really makes it his own, and I applaud him for doing so.

Like I described earlier, this is the Michael Douglas show, and it revolves around him, but he wouldn't be anything without his strong supporting cast. What's peculiar about the supporting cast is that no character is in more than about five scenes in the whole movie. They'll come in for a bit, and come back way later in the movie, and it works. I mean, when you have a supporting cast of Jenna Fischer, Jesse Eisenberg, Danny DeVito, and Susan Sarandon, what can really go wrong. Not much.

Solitary Man is one of the more honest movies you'll see this year, and by far one of the better Michael Douglas performances you'll see as of late.