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Michael Douglas has had a blessed career. He turned a successful television acting role into a major motion picture career on both sides of the camera. The golden statues on his mantle are a testament to all of his hard work. His latest is Solitary Man, and could well garner him another Oscar.
The story of Solitary Man is of Ben Kalmen (Michael Douglas), a man knocking on retirement and a guy who will not go gently into that good night. When his doctor notices an abnormal rhythm in his heart, Ben panics. We flash-forward a few years and Ben has changed his life, but not for the better. He has divorced his college sweetheart Nancy (Susan Sarandon), a woman who understands him more than any other person. He has a daughter Susan (Jenna Fisher) and a grandson. Ben is more interested in finding a young conquest than being grandpa. He insists that Susan act as his wife and his grandson as his son. Ben in a king of manipulation, knowing what everyone wants and having the ability to talk anyone into anything. He tries to capture his youth by bedding each and every young female he sees.
The rest of his life is also in shambles. Once he owned a car dealership but ‘The most honest car dealer in New York” set up a giant scam that cost him all of his cash and his dealership. As the drama opens, he is trying to get his way back to the top, planning on using his current girlfriend Jordan (Mary-Louise Parker) and her wealthy connections to vault into an upper Manhattan lifestyle. His goal is a BMW car lot. Ben agrees to take Jordan’s daughter Allyson (Imogen Poots) to Boston so the young woman can visit a college where he is a former student and current benefactor. That trip begins Ben’s downfall. Seeing all the old building stirs some feelings, just as seeing his old buddy Jimmy (wonderfully underplayed by Danny Devito). Just as he departs advice to a young student (Jesse Eisenberg), he makes a fatal mistake. This plot point goes all the way back to Manhattan, threatening what little shreds of a life he has left.
The story is a character study of man at the crossroads of his life and not liking the choices he sees. Michael Douglas plays this role with a bitter glee, giving a humanity to a very unsympathetic character. He just sinks his acting chops into this performance, finding every correct beat to the character. Through Ben we examine the question of what makes a man a success and what makes him a failure. At times, one has to fall hard to get the point of the ground.
Jenna Fisher is best known from her many seasons on The Office. Here she plays much of the same character but with a little fouler mouth. She showed a greater range in Blades of Glory from a few seasons back. Susan Sarandon can do no wrong playing the left-behind wife. She shows strength in confronting Ben, knowing that she has hurt him and that she has moved on. It is a sly reading that just works on every level.
Brian Koppelman and David Levien direct the script from Koppelman’s original screenplay. They do so many things right here, capturing the beauty of both featured cities with the best light. It almost becomes a picture postcard in the framing. The best thing the two did in Solitary Man was assembling a perfect cast. There is not a role or a performance that is wasted here and Michael Douglas shows that he can still command magic.
While not everyone’s cup of bitter tea, Solitary Man does make a great case study of how far one must fall in order to save one’s soul. It delivers something different in the Summer blockbuster season and needs to be sought out.
