Luckily, Douglas’ character Ben Kalmen happens to be a very rich guy. But the catch is that writers and directors Brian Koppelman and David Levien (they wrote “Rounders” and “Ocean’s 13” together) make Ben a guy who has smashed his own reputation and is dangerously close to losing his luxuries, like his high-rise New York penthouse. He spent all of his money buying his way out of jail, he explains. This implies that Ben’s lawyers kept him away from dire fraud charges over his auto manufacturing business. But whatever happens, Ben is dressed to kill. Or at least to thrill. Ben is so narcissistic that he thinks as long as he is present in the room, he is a thrill to everybody.
Barely besides him in his life are his ex-wife Nancy (Susan Sarandon) and his daughter Susan (Jenna Fischer), yet it’s the daughter that puts up regularly with listening to Ben’s lewd sexual conquests. But everywhere Ben goes, he thinks he has the right to invade in on other conversations. Ben’s current girlfriend Jordan (Mary Louise Parker), asks him to escort her daughter Allyson (Imogen Poots) to a college university orientation, and Ben hardly misses a beat to bust in the younger frat boy turf.
The uncompromising aspects of the story involve how Ben, not only tries to get laid over the weekend, but that he actually does. Which trickles is a domino effect of bad luck and backfiring – risking reputation, respect of family and a bank loan which he is relying on – which sends Ben nosediving. He’s left leaning on Jimmy Marino (Danny DeVito) to give him a job at a diner, and college kid Daniel Cheston (Jesse Eisenberg) who needs the aging bachelor to mentor him in the art of talking to girls.
When a rich guy like Ben though falls down hard it’s enough to make him want to change his ways around, at least according to the usual Hollywood screenplay. But Ben still wants to hit on girls, and now that he resorts to a campus town, that means 19-year old girls. The Humbert Humbert perv in Ben doesn’t want to let up. But he doesn’t want to see that he is now woefully out of place at college parties.
Douglas, whom judging on this colorfully grandiose performance, is getting to the age to play a perfect Robert Evans if ever given the opportunity, that former Paramount studios honcho and ladykiller that fell hard after a string of flops and personal bad publicity. Playing Ben, he’s still the kind of Basic/Fatal character that made Douglas an icon 20 years ago, except that “Solitary Man” happens to be a story emboldened by harsh revelations and consequences. Yet at the same time, it is fun to see Douglas revel in a character steeped in slick, lecherous conduct because he is so damn persuasive in action. Do guys like Ben ever enter 12-step programs as long as they still remain wealthy?
There are some select readers present that still crave anti-commercial movies when they become available. So far this year, I count three really good ones for you: “Greenberg,” “Chloe,” and “Solitary Man.” These are the movies that feature characters that sound like real intelligent people, the kind of people with grey shadings of good and bad behaviors. But if any of you out there that ever thought that Michael Douglas was a great actor denied a challenging role, well, then this is the challenging role he was born to play.
Go to the official site at http://www.solitarymanmovie.com/
Grade: B+
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