Solitary Man (2009)

I do not know what I was expecting with Solitary Man. I have to confess the only reason I even sat through this movie was because I saw Jenna Fischer on the cover. Other than Fischer I never would have sat through a film with Michael Douglas and the rest of the actors in it. I was just hoping that the movie was worth taking the time to sit through.

            Michael Douglas plays Ben Kalman a former car salesman. He was outrageously successful with lots of money and married. Over six years Ben and his wife Nancy (Susan Sarandon) divorce and he got into some big trouble with his business and spent much of his money to stay out of jail. Now he is a man that his daughter Susan (Fischer) is ashamed of, he sleeps around with any young looking girl.

            Ben is seeing this woman Jordan (Mary- Louise Parker) because her father has connections with car dealerships. He is all set to open a new car dealership until he sleeps with Jordan’s daughter Allyson. After that Ben’s life really gets out of control especially Susan refuses to do any more than she has already done for him.

            That is pretty much the whole movie in a nutshell. The reason Ben became a creeper was because he went to the doctor one day and the doctor did some kind of a test on his heart. After this Ben felt really old and that night found some hot girl at a bar to sleep with him and that set him off on cheating and trying to hook up with younger women and cheat at his business. He essentially took a lot of risks because of his heart and his age.

            I was bored with Solitary Man. Michael Douglas, Mary- Louise Parker, and Susan Sarandon are actors I do not particularly care for (True story: my grandma lives across the street from Susan Sarandon’s step-brother Tim. Just thought I would share). Jenna Fischer was excellent and I am not saying that because I like her as an actress. Her character seemed to have the most depth and she is the only one you really feel bad for. The story was just bored me it was a man going through a crisis in his old age and he lost everything because he was stupid. If we were meant to feel bad for Ben I did not he was a jerk. Solitary Man is not awful it is just was not my cup of tea. 

The Witches of Eastwick



“Who are you?”
“Just your average, horny little devil.”

            The Witches of Eastwick tells the story of three lonely and sexually repressed women whose husbands have left them. The three friends- Alex, Sukie, and Jane one night talk about what they would want in their perfect man. The next day a mysterious man buys a historic mansion. No one can remember his name and no one knows what he does. Eventually Alex, Sukie, and Jane come to know the new mysterious man named Daryl Van Horne very personally. He releases their repressed emotions and sexuality. The whole town is talking about them and Daryl and not in a good way. Eventually Daryl begins to become possessive of the three women and causes them great distress. Alex, Sukie, and Jane know that Daryl is evil, he is the devil and he must be gotten rid of for the sake of their lives.

            If you ever paid attention in an American History class you should have read or at least have heard about the Salem Witch Trials. This movie takes place in the fictional town of Eastwick in New England. So no surprise that John Updike, the author behind the book the movie is based on set his book in that particular region of the United States.

            This movie has a lot of good comedic moments and there are some moments that are very over the top and way too much. The cast was pretty well; Cher plays Alex the town sculptress, Susan Sarandon plays Jane a cellist and the school band teacher, and Michelle Pfeiffer as Sukie a newspaper writer with a lot of kids. Jack Nicholson is perfect as the creepy and vile Daryl Van Horne. The one person who steals the whole movie and practically makes it worth watching is Veronica Cartwright as the local Christian moral checker Felicia Alden. Cartwright’s scenes get so intense they are almost uncomfortable to watch (whenever I watch this it is odd to think she was the little girl in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds ). I found Pfeiffer to be the weakest of the cast, don’t get me wrong she is a very good actress but compared to Sarandon and Cher’s characters she just did not fit. I understand Sukie was the kind of innocent one out the three women but I found it a bit unbelievable that someone like Daryl would go for her, then again she is damaged and vulnerable and will listen to anything.

            The script is a bit weak and without all these actors do not think this movie would have turned out as well as it did. The first half of the movie is really good the story is very entertaining but it seems like once the women wanted to get rid of Daryl the story went downhill and becomes a bit boring and a bit too much. Nicholson starts to really get on my nerves with his over the top acting.

            The Witches of Eastwick is an enjoyable movie to watch. It is an interesting mix of comedy and disturbance.