In Solitary Man, Michael Douglas plays Ben Kalmen, a (former) car salesman in NYC with a heart condition who is divorced from his wife and sleeping with many young women (he's nearing 60), and his family doesn't approve. He used to have multiple dealerships on the east coast, but lost them all through bad business tactics. He's working on opening one via his current girlfriend's father's connections. He blows his opportunity to get in on the new car dealership, which was the only thing he had going in his favor. Without that he has no job, no income, no wife, and no life. Ben slowly ruins every kind of relationship in his life, personal and professional. He's an aging man living with the consequences of his actions and choices that have isolated him and dissolved his once successful business, a marriage, and most recent relationship. He has nothing left to lose. His only friend left is Danny Devito's character, who gives him a job at his diner to help him through the hard time. Being an aging man with a bad heart whose life is in tatters, Ben struggles to accept that he is a shadow of his former self, and he tries to feel young again by having relations with lots of girls much younger than him and half-heartedly working on his business by scamming his girlfriend. As it would be for anyone, it's hard for him to accept that he is responsible for the current state of his life and his mistakes spell the end for him.
The problem with this movie is that you don't feel sorry for Michael Douglas' character. The film lacks emotion and depth, and while it's watchable, slow but not boring, it didn't leave me with much. Its not a very memorable or special film, but worth watching on a slow night with not much else to do.
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January 2015
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