Friday, February 11, 2011

Solitary Man

Directed (and written) by Brian Koppleman, Millenium Films, 2009. Starring Michael Douglas, Susan Saradon, Danny DeVito, Jesse Eisenberg and Jenna Fischer.

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance.

Question: Are there characters out there that you love to hate or not like very much? It is usually fun to root for their failure or for their realization that they need to change, right?

Well, Michael Douglas' character in Solitary Man is that type of character. His sayings, actions along with his overall selfishness are right there in that category of “love to hate” and could have made this a good film. But I believe the film makers purposely decided not to take the normal route for telling the main character's story.  I am just not sure if I liked the approach.

It is listed as a comedy and a romance movie but I would not call this either - at least, not in the normal sense. It definitely started out light - well sort of, but then I just became a little irritated at the character and the lack of self-awareness as the story progressed. But I believe that was the film makers’ intention.

Michael Douglas pulled off a great performance but the other characters weren't given much to go on. It seemed a little unbalanced.  Plus, the ending was good and not the norm - which is so refreshing sometimes - but I am not sure worked overall.

Favorite thing: I admit I did love to hate the main character. That was easy.

Least favorite: The reason the character was the way he was. Kind of lame.

Possibility of a sequel? No.

Did the previews ruin it? No, not at all. It made me want to see it. Never saw the previews in the theatre but did in some of the independent films I have rented.

Rating: R
Length: 90 minutes


Review: 4 out of 10

Solitary Man - DVD

Videos on Demand

1 comment:

Garry Crystal said...

I loved this film. It was a quite different film to what the trailer (that I saw anyway)was actually trying to make it into. As you have written it wasn't really a comedy or romance but more of a drama, especially with his downward spiral. Douglas was great in it and I thought the end scene was perfect. It's a shame this wasn't a big hit but it's another one to add to his resume of great but little seen films such as The King of California.