SOLITARY MAN
US, 2009, 90 minutes. Colour.
Michael Douglas, Susan Sarandon, Danny De Vito, Mary- Louise Parker, Jenna Fischer, Imogen Poots, Jesse Eisenberg, Richard Schiff.
Directed by Brian Koppelman and David Levien.
Solitary Man has a most impressive performance by Michael Douglas. One can ask how much he was drawing on his performance as Gordon Gecko (reprised in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps at the same time as this film). It also echoes some of the problems that Douglas experienced in his own life.
He portrays a car dealer who has made his name with deals as well as television advertising. However, he has been womanising all his married life and has alienated his wife (Susan Sarandon) and his daughter (Jenna Fischer). However, the women are sympathetic towards him and offer a listening ear at times although the daughter becomes very frustrated with his fickleness, especially in his unreliability in affection for her son.
He is in a relationship with Mary- Louise Parker whose father could help him with a dealership. When she asks him to accompany her eighteen-year-old daughter (Imogen Poots) to Boston to persuade the dean to have an interview for her to get a place at the university (he had contributed money for the library), he finishes up by a relationship with her, she being the seducer, following his advice on moral matters and relationships. He also encounters a young student, played by Jesse Eisenberg (who does variations on the same theme of acting, perhaps by his appearance and his speaking manner, but it works well, even to an Oscar nomination for The Social Contract). Richard Schiff appears briefly as a financial adviser. The other impressive performance in the film is from Danny De Vito who worked with Michael Douglas in Romancing the Stone, Jewel of the Nile, The Wars of the Roses. He portrays the exact opposite of the Douglas character, a man faithfully married for forty years, satisfied with his life and with his work in a diner.
The film is interesting as a portrait of what happens to many men in middle age when they are confronted by ageing, by the mistakes they have made in their business, by their being treated in an offhand manner by the young women whom they try to seduce. The film, to that extent, is quite a sobering experience.
1. The impact of the drama? A contemporary moral fable?
2. The title, Ben as a solitary man, the Neil Diamond song, the lyrics, Johnny Cash singing it?
3. The film as a portrait of Ben, the opening with his preparing to go out, ageing, ready to face life, yet the history of the deals, his cutting corners, the arrest, his paying compensation? Nancy gone, yet the memories? His attraction towards young women, nineteen-year-olds, the sex addiction? His reliance on Susan? His love for his grandson? Admiration for his son-in-law but still despising him? His wanting to get a new dealership? The negotiations? His relationship with Jordon?
4. The plan for the dealership, talking to the young man, intimations that the board would turn him down? The prospective collaborator? The board turning him down, the reply on the answering machine? The influence of Jordon and her vengeance? His meeting Steve Heller for the meal, the discussion, the bank cutting its ties with him? His bad behaviour at the meal?
5. His relationships with women, the womanising all his life? His memories of Nancy, the courtship, the bench where they met? His love for Susan, confiding in her? Her knowing the truth about him? His propensity for flirting? His addiction?
6. Going to Boston, Allyson, her age, attitude, relationship with her mother, resentments? His past benefiting the university, the contribution to the library? Meeting the principal? Meeting Cheston? The discussions? Catching the frisbee, the fight, the shirt and changing, Cheston helping him? His cavalier advice to Cheston about relationships and study?
7. Going to meet Jimmy, thirty years without seeing him, the bond with Jimmy, Jimmy and his admiration for Ben, keeping the covers of magazines with his photos?
8. Ben and Allyson, the party, the seduction, who was seducing whom? The next day, her leaving, the mobile phone message? His affection for her? Trying to talk with her, her suddenly telling her mother the truth? Jordon, her anger, her contacts and preventing Ben getting the dealership? His discussions with Susan, explaining things to her?
9. The security guard at the university, his brother taken in by the dealership? His being ousted from his apartment? Going to see Jimmy, their talk, the couch, getting the job, working in the coffee shop, the girls and his attention, Allyson and her visit? Her blunt talking to him? Humiliating him?
10. The phone calls to Susan during the night, her wanting to stop the calls? His visit, borrowing money? Her husband and his bluntness? The little boy, the bond with his grandfather, Ben and his picking up with the neighbour, oversleeping, late for the visit to the zoo, coming with the cake and the gifts? Susan and her firm stand?
11. His visit to Nancy, the apartment, her keeping it, the memories, her new life as an estate agent? Her understanding Ben?
12. Meeting Allyson, her discussion of her list, her sexual experiences and crossing them off?
13. Cheston, returning the shirt, the discussions, the invitation to the party, Cheston’s girlfriend, his trying to hit on her, her reaction, her telling Cheston, Cheston’s response?
14. Ben and his revisiting the significant people in his life, his family, Cheston, Allyson? Jimmy?
15. Could Ben come out of his solitary condition – or not?
