Review: Solitary Man
Film: Solitary Man
Starring: Michael Douglas, Susan Sarandon, Danny DeVito, Mary-Louise Parker, Jenna Fischer, Imogen Poots and Jesse Eisenberg
Director: Brian Koppelman and David Levien
Screenwriter: Brian Koppelman
Do you ever get the feeling that if films didn't have a moral, they'd be totally different?
Solitary Man is the story of a man whose indiscretions lead to loads of problems. This is what they want us to believe. This sixty year-old, divorced man, who prefers his women of the late-teens-to-early-twenties variety, is a true charmer. He's charmed his entire family, his work contacts and - of course - any woman that he sees as a potential sex partner. Unfortunately for him his actions cause him to lose all the things that once meant something to him.
The problem is that by the middle of the film, despite his steady decline, I sat there asking myself if rather than being shown the repercussions of Ben Kalmen's (Michael Douglas) lascivious behavior, we were actually seeing a view of the ideal fantasy every man has, veiled in a morality story about how this man's behavior has ruined his life. I can see the intended parallels in this film between Ben's lifestyle and what he was trying to avoid, but they weren't enough to make me believe that the morality story really was the initial vision of the writer.
Like any message-laden film, you sit and ask yourself how Ben got to this point and are rewarded with an explanation at the end. However, I wonder if the reveal was worth the 90 minute journey to get there, especially when the revelation was something used in another, similar situation in another film made roughly 25 years prior that I happened to watch the night before I saw this one. How ironic is that?
Perhaps this story would have been better told in less time? Some scenes just seemed to drag a bit too long to get its point across. This after writer/co-director Brian Koppelman said he had to cut out scenes after a few screenings because he discovered the audiences were smarter than he had thought.
My main issues with this film included the following:
1. If you lost all your money and couldn't afford anything, would you still be driving a fancy Mercedes? Maybe some car aficionados out there can tell me if that was an older model left over from the height of Ben's car selling days, or a freebie he managed to sweet talk off an old friend.
2. If someone gave you some hefty blows to your groin and kidney area and threatened to do worse if you didn't leave tomorrow, would you stay yet another day (I'm talking about after he leaves the hospital)?
3. I would have liked to have seen a bit more of Ben's earlier life when he was married to give the film a bigger impact, rather than only giving us a hint of it at the beginning.
4. The friendship between Ben and Jimmy (Danny DeVito) was lacking. The two actors are close friends in real life, so you'd think the chemistry would ooze out on screen, but it didn't.
The acting was good all around, and the film was far from boring, but when a movie makes me ask, "Why am I being shown this?" in the middle, then there's something missing.
Directors Brian Koppelman and David Levien (Koppelman wrote the screenplay) were guests at the screening. Koppelman said he was fascinated by a man who would live like Ben Kalman and wanted to write a film about someone like that.
They said that Michael Douglas really immersed himself in the part. They told of how he would just personify the character as if he were really the man himself.
Starring: Michael Douglas, Susan Sarandon, Danny DeVito, Mary-Louise Parker, Jenna Fischer, Imogen Poots and Jesse Eisenberg
Director: Brian Koppelman and David Levien
Screenwriter: Brian Koppelman
Do you ever get the feeling that if films didn't have a moral, they'd be totally different?
Solitary Man is the story of a man whose indiscretions lead to loads of problems. This is what they want us to believe. This sixty year-old, divorced man, who prefers his women of the late-teens-to-early-twenties variety, is a true charmer. He's charmed his entire family, his work contacts and - of course - any woman that he sees as a potential sex partner. Unfortunately for him his actions cause him to lose all the things that once meant something to him.
The problem is that by the middle of the film, despite his steady decline, I sat there asking myself if rather than being shown the repercussions of Ben Kalmen's (Michael Douglas) lascivious behavior, we were actually seeing a view of the ideal fantasy every man has, veiled in a morality story about how this man's behavior has ruined his life. I can see the intended parallels in this film between Ben's lifestyle and what he was trying to avoid, but they weren't enough to make me believe that the morality story really was the initial vision of the writer.
Like any message-laden film, you sit and ask yourself how Ben got to this point and are rewarded with an explanation at the end. However, I wonder if the reveal was worth the 90 minute journey to get there, especially when the revelation was something used in another, similar situation in another film made roughly 25 years prior that I happened to watch the night before I saw this one. How ironic is that?
Perhaps this story would have been better told in less time? Some scenes just seemed to drag a bit too long to get its point across. This after writer/co-director Brian Koppelman said he had to cut out scenes after a few screenings because he discovered the audiences were smarter than he had thought.
My main issues with this film included the following:
1. If you lost all your money and couldn't afford anything, would you still be driving a fancy Mercedes? Maybe some car aficionados out there can tell me if that was an older model left over from the height of Ben's car selling days, or a freebie he managed to sweet talk off an old friend.
2. If someone gave you some hefty blows to your groin and kidney area and threatened to do worse if you didn't leave tomorrow, would you stay yet another day (I'm talking about after he leaves the hospital)?
3. I would have liked to have seen a bit more of Ben's earlier life when he was married to give the film a bigger impact, rather than only giving us a hint of it at the beginning.
4. The friendship between Ben and Jimmy (Danny DeVito) was lacking. The two actors are close friends in real life, so you'd think the chemistry would ooze out on screen, but it didn't.
The acting was good all around, and the film was far from boring, but when a movie makes me ask, "Why am I being shown this?" in the middle, then there's something missing.
Directors Brian Koppelman and David Levien (Koppelman wrote the screenplay) were guests at the screening. Koppelman said he was fascinated by a man who would live like Ben Kalman and wanted to write a film about someone like that.
They said that Michael Douglas really immersed himself in the part. They told of how he would just personify the character as if he were really the man himself.
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