What is the point of this movie? We basically watch the slow disintegration of a truly reprehensible and despicable character. Ben Kalmen has no redeeming features whatever, and his decline never seems to have a larger point to it. And the script that tells this tale is leaden and sluggish. It is also a problem that Douglas' performance seems to lack the nasty edge that this vile character requires; there is too much of the "nice guy" we have come to know from Douglas' other roles. He should have brought to the part some of the nastiness he showed as Steven Taylor in "A Perfect Murder." Also, the miserable way he treats his daughter and her family needs to elicit more rage from that character; Jenna Fischer's performance is flat and lacking the required anger. A music score might have helped, but it's in absentia. And the ending is simply completely unbelievable.
Review of Solitary Man
