Solitary Man
Ben Kalmen had everything. He had a successful job as a car salesman, a perfect wife, lots of friends and a daughter who loves him. But after he's caught by the police after tricking customers and told by the doctor to have developing heart problems his life starts to steadily go downhill. And now, 6 years later, he's turned into a womanizing sleazebag who acts like a wise, noble old man, but will stab anyone in the back if he gets an opportunity to. This movie is very hard to watch. Not in the terms of graphic content, but rather like a slideshow of regretful moments you would you could erase. The problem is that Kalmen doesn't get that his way of living is self-destructive. He has no job, he no longer has a wife, and his heart is getting worse by the minute, so what the hell right? Go your own way, do as you please. But as he keeps on losing more and more connections, even ruining his relationship with his new girlfriend, he pretty much stands alone. As a solitary man. Or did that already happen much longer ago?
Michael Douglas gives one of his most earnest performances as someone who has so many faults and has such an unlikeable personality you should hate him. But I don't. Instead, I feel pity for him. That he's so far deep into his hole that every time he manages to dig himself up, more earth falls down on him every time he makes decisons which range from bad to worse. The only one who doesn't give up on him even when he's at his lowest is his oldtime friend Jimmy Merino, played with sublety by Danny DeVito. The speech he gives about how he has managed to stay so faithful to his wife is beautiful. There's so much truth in what he said.
To get back on Kalmen, even when he's at his most cunning however, there's something about him that draws you in. Doesn't he have a weird amount of charm for being such an up-and-front douchebag? It makes you realize how he got away with it for so long. Why people labeled him as the most honest car dealer, because how can a smile like that do any wrong? And how bad can he be if he gives you useful life advice?
But it's just a fascade. He covers his own insecurities and flaws up by trying to glide through life like a careless, free-thinking playboy. No matter how bad things get, anything is better than confronting those issues. The question is just, how long can he do it before it finally destroys him?
If you hate watching character dramas about people with larger-than-life egos, I still recommend giving this one a chance. It's so much more than just watching a movie about someone behaving like a highclass jerk. It's about all of us. How any of us can feel like the solitary man, by yourself in an area of vacuum.
Michael Douglas is our day and age's most relatable big star.