Solitary Man (2009)
Solitary Man (USA) Directed by David Levien; Brian Koppelman Written by Brian Koppelman Starring Michael Douglas; Susan Sarandon; Jenna Fischer ; Imogen Poots; Mary-Louise Parker; Danny Devito; Jesse Eisenberg; Richard Schiff; Gary Costabile; Olivia Thirlby; Ben Shenkman; Jake Richard Siciliano
Recalling a similarly aging lothario, Grady Tripp, in Curtis Hanson’s Wonder Boys (2000), Michael Douglas plays Ben Kalmen, a disgraced car dealership owner who has managed to squander a small empire after having been caught scamming customers through shady business dealings. Though he paid a hefty fine to avoid prison, his reputation is sunk, and he has been reduced to sleeping with Jordan Karsch (Mary-Louise Parker), mostly because of her father’s powerful local contacts. His relationship with daughter, Susan (Jenna Fischer) is close - in fact, uncomfortably so as Ben feels the pressing need to recount the details of his latest conquests to her, claiming that this kind of openness is good for both of them. Susan’s protective therapist husband, Gary, sees the unreliable Ben as manipulative and disruptive, and is concerned that he is a bad influence over young son, Scotty, who views his grandfather as a kind of magical force of nature. Ben has traversed his life conning and charming people, but those closest to him have been forced to deal with the aftermath, the path of destruction he has left in his wake. His new-found interest in his daughter has come only after his financial collapse, and he is not above hitting her up for rent money. Ben’s ex-wife Nancy (Susan Sarandon) has settled into a new life, but years later remains somewhat perplexed as to why Ben felt it necessary to ruin what she viewed as a good marriage in the first place. Ben is broke and reeling, and when he is informed of an abnormality with his heart he chooses to ignore the doctor’s advice and keep on with what is working (or not working) for him. When Jordan demands he escort her attractive eighteen year old daughter Allyson (Imogen Poots) to her campus visit at his alma mater (where Ben is to talk to the dean on her behalf) the nearly elderly Ben is confronted with temptation, as well as his past in the form of old long lost friend Jimmy (real life pal Danny Devito) and new friend, socially awkward sophomore Cheston (Jesse Eisenberg). The inclusion of the college sequences make the comparisons to Wonder Boys even more difficult to ignore, and Solitary Man fails to live up to the completeness of that film, which was enriched by the marvelous source novel by Michael Chabon. There are any number of good moments here though, and Douglas seems to enjoy playing the rogue, imbuing Ben with a kind of older-rich-guy panache that makes his attractiveness to women at least semi-believable. Co-directed by the writing team behind Rounders and Knockaround Guys, and also Soderbergh’s Ocean’s 13 and The Girlfriend Experience (Soderbergh Executive Produces here), the film is reasonably modulated and ably lensed, though the draw is clearly the well put together ensemble cast. Kudos to Koppelman and Levien for creating a protagonist who is simultaneously dynamic and virtually morally bankrupt, though ultimately one’s interest level may be determined by how much one cares to devote to such an utterly self involved individual.