Review of Solitary Man (2009) by Jason C — 03 Jul 2010

This is the kind of movie I love. Sollitary Man is a dialogue driven, verbally fast paced movie. There are no big budget effects to speak of, which is usual for summer releases, but this is offset by a magnificent cast headed by Michael Douglas. On top of being pretty stylish, it's a full headed charge into a deep investigation into Ben Kalman, Douglas' character.

Who cares who wrote or directed this movie, really. The cast is going to do what they want to make the movie better than it was going to be if they weren't in it.

Michael Douglas does a great job as a man on the downward part of a downward spiral. He knows it, but tries to keep his pride intact, and even that slowly goes away. He falls back on the last friends he has, and even most of them begin to grow weary of who he is.

Besides Douglas, Mary-Louis Parker, Susan Sarandon, Jesse Eisenberg and one of my favorites, Danny DeVito, pitch in to make the movie even better. There are plenty of younger actors to help make Solitary Man funny, engrossing, serious and very deep.

There is really no reason to search Solitary Man out because of its somewhat limited release, unless you want to break the redundance that is this sad lot of summer blockbuster movies being released. If you want to see a very good movie, though, find it. And definitely when it does come out on DVD or a movie channel.