Solitary Man

Movie review from The Movie Snob

Solitary Man (B-). Michael Douglas stars as Ben Kalmen, a 60-year-old New Yorker who's part Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas in Wall Street) and part Uncle Wayne (Michael Douglas in Ghosts of Girlfriends Past). You see, Kalmen was once a hugely successful owner of car dealerships and had a lovely family, but he threw the business away through crooked business dealings, and he busted up his family by deciding to chase every woman who crossed his path. When this movie catches up with Kalmen, he is desperately chasing one last shot to get back into the world of business, and he is still chasing every woman who crosses his path. Douglas is perfect for the role, and there are nice supporting turns by the likes of Susan Sarandon (Dead Man Walking), Jesse Eisenberg (Zombieland), Danny DeVito (Other People's Money), and Jenna Fischer (TV's The Office). But even though Douglas convincingly portrays Kalmen in all his bleak soullessness, something about the movie just didn't quite ring true to me. The movie gave me the impression that Kalmen was a stand-up guy not all that long ago, and I didn't buy the ostensible reason he changed from New York's "honest car dealer" into a fraud and a lecher. But on the whole it was still a decent movie, albeit about a pathetic guy.