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A Solitary Man
37 comments:
I haven't seen, or heard of A solitary Man, I'm thinking that's a good thing. I did enjoy Michael Douglas in The Game, although now, when I see a show where absolutely everything goes wrong in every direction with a single character, I wounder whose pulling the prank. It's usually the woman involved, unsurprisingly.
I didn't see the movie, and have no interest in it. I do appreciate you posting the Susan Sarandan pic.
Glenna
I hadnt heard of it either. It was just a random grab from the video store. It had lots of praise all over it.
Dana
I've said it before and I'll say it again, Tim Robbins is an idiot.
Yesterday I came across this quote:
"A man who views the world the same at fifty as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life."
Muhammad Ali.
And yet it seems to be the secret to success in Hollywood.
I'm not that crazy about the guy, but I had a look back and there were a few things I liked him in: Falling Down, Wonder Boys and Traffic. None of these particularly relied on his sex appeal or his mover and shaker status.
For a moment you were talking about A Single Man, which I happened to watch the other night. It was pretty different than I thought, mainly because I'd forgotten that Isherwood had ended up in L.A. and not England. I thought it was good, though maybe a little too neat--still laudable for tackling the subject of grief in an understated way.
The reason I mention it here, though, is that there was a certain moment in the movie when Colin Firth was sitting in an office or something and some secretary or someone came up, and I thought, but this is the palette of the early 60s, and this is the light of L.A. and everything. They had got it exactly right, and it makes Mad Men seem more like a fantasy of the era than ever to me.
I saw this and hated it. I got it because i like Micheal Douglas. He sleeps with his step daughter. Thats so wrong diddly wrong. I couldnt get past it that. I just couldnt.
Hear, hear on the thumbs down.
I usually like MD but didn't care for his role in this movie or the movie itself for exalting the behavior of a degenerate.
wait...what?
Unlike your antiheros, MD seemed without moral integrity. I never felt the love.
Adrian,
I have some questions about your books and your opinion on other books. Being a new follower to your blog I don't know if you are open to answering questions and if so, where is it appropriate to post them?
Trudy
John
I think they view the world the same as they did when they were, say, 15.
Seana
A Single Man doesnt seem like my cup of tea either. I still cant forgive Auden and Isherwood for fleeing the country in 1940.
Frankie
I think we're supposed to forgive him because he's so charming or something. Its absurd.
Trudy
Feel free to ask anything you want on this or any other topic. I dont mind in the least.
You're right, I hadn't put his being in America down to that context. The only thing I remembered was that he was involved in the Indian spirituality movement down in L.A., so I should have known the movie wouldn't be set in England. It was kind of odd that it was a somewhat autobiographical novel that the movie was based on, yet the whole premise is that the younger partner has died unexpectedly. In fact, there was a much younger partner, who survives him to this day. Apparently he wrote the book when they were going through a bad patch and Isherwood imagined what it would be like to live without him. Pretty good imagination, if you ask me.
I know--it doesn't excuse anything, though I do wonder how they justified it to themselves.
Seana
And for a writer? Think of the material that they missed out on. Silly move. Jimmy Stewart and David Niven for example did the opposite giving up safe highly paying jobs in LA to move to London and get stuck in against the Nazis. Even Evelyn Waugh who was much fatter and older and more conservative than Auden or Isherwood stayed and joined the army.
Well, apparently he did meet Ray Bradbury in L.A. and helped launch his career, so that I suppose counts for something.
Yeah, I know. Not quite enough.
Michael Douglas isn't alone, of course. Sean Connery with the 40-years-younger Catherine Zeta Jones in Entrapment or the 25-years-younger Lorraine Bracco in Medicine Man. Creepy.
Good point, Dave. In fact, somebody could probably make a list...
Well, in reality Michael Douglas is married to Catherine Zeta-Jones, and she is 25 years younger than he is -- just for anyone who has been living under a rock...why I know this useless information I don't know.
"Solitary Man" was an awful movie about someone with no scruples, no human morality, who uses people, including many women. I found it grating like sandpaper, and somehow, against my better judgment, watched the entire movie -- but was reaching a thriller at the time. So does it count?
Yes, I guess Michael Douglas' character learns his lesson at the end, but guess who is there to save him at the end? You guessed it: Susan Sarandon.
Adrian, you’re just pissed because all these guys keep dumping Susan Sarandon, and you still can’t get her.
Michael Douglas does seem to have spent his entire career as big star teaching lessons and acting out fantasies, doesn’t he?
======================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Seana
Doesnt Ray Bradbury live in SC or am I thinking of someone else?
Wait actually I'm thinking of Heinlein who I'm pretty sure lived near SC>
David
And dont even get started on Woody Allen...
Kathy
It was an awful movie. At least the two thirds of it I saw. So how to explain all the positive reviews? There's just a bunch of creepy older reviewers out there? I guess so.
Peter
And she still looks fabulous if you ask me.
I think they've all disappointed us. Harrison Ford, Michael Douglas even De Niro, their choices in the last 10 years have been baffling.
Yeah, that was Robert Heinlein. I always knew he had lived somewhere up in the Santa Cruz Mountains, but now know it was Bonny Doon, which is a tiny but interesting place.
Bradbury comes from Waukegan Illinois, which is where my dad went to high school. They were near contemporaries, and I suspect he was in the same class as one or another of my dad's older siblings, of whom there were a lot. Bradbury is ninety, and more power to him.
Yeah, those three are not the cultural forces they once were, are they? And if that'sa recnet picture of Susan Sarandon, you're right.
Seana
I love stuff like that. My wife took a short story class with Ursula Le Guin once is about the best I can do.
Peter
2009 - so you know holding up pretty well.
I wonder if one of the reasons these guys have hung on so long is because no one's pushed them out - like they did to the "old Hollywood" before them?
I saw an interesting line in an article about Elizabeth Taylor last week, how Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolfe really paved the way for Bonnie and Clyde and all that came after. Apparently Richard Burton saw this and wrote something in his diary about how they were going to be responsible for making this change but they weren't going to be a part of it.
May-December romance/lust movies have, unfortunately, a long history. Check out Sabrina with Bogart and Audrey Hepburn. He looks like the Cryptkeeper next to her. And Daddy Long Legs with Astaire and Leslie Caron is even worse. The Caron character is an orphan Astaire has put through school, and then, upon graduation, he romances her. Caron looks 14 and Astaire looks like a dessicated wino. Let's not even talk about Woody Allen. I'm not surprised Ebert gave A Solitary Man a good review; he's been getting more soft-headed in his reviews for a while. Unless something actually spits venom from the screen at him, he's bound to give it three stars.
Cary: I don't know how true that old story is that Humphrey Bogart hated Audrey Hepburn, but his performance in Sabrina is painful to watch. He looks like he had burrs in his shorts.
Adrian: Il-y-a du monde au balcon.
==========================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
John
And they're continually pushing youth youth youth. We're always being told that film is a visual medium which is why we need young actresses, but young actresses and old old geezers is creepy.
Cary
About the only one who ever pulled it off was your namesake. Cary Grant somehow fits with Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn even though he was 100 years older than them. But then he had the decency to retire.
Peter
For me its all about the winning personality.
For me its all about the winning personality.
That's a load of schtuss.
Raymond Chandler's story "Killer in the Rain," much of which he later incorporated in The Big Sleep, introduces but quickly drops the creepy May-December angle. Like the novel, the story has a father trying to save a wayward daughter named Carmen from unsavory associations. In the story, though, the guy admits that he found the girl as an abandoned baby, raised her -- and now wants to marry her. But Chandler drops the issue as soon as he introduces it, and it plays no further role in the story.
======================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Humphrey Bogart was woefully miscast in "Sabrina." According to that font of information, Wikipedia," he didn't get along with the director or co-stars, and didn't like the script, and in the end didn't care who successfully won Sabrina's heart.
It was painful to watch him in that movie, as he was so obviously uncomfortable. That last scene with him and Audrey Hepburn supposedly reuniting was horrendous; one thought she was reuniting with someone who does root canals, not a romantic partner.
By the way, the director wanted, but could not get Cary Grant; now, that bon vivant would have been exactly right. No bon vivant was Bogart.
Bravo! Everything about this "movie" was false. The writing is awful. There is not a true moment in it. It's as if the writer mimics feelings and depth. As if he truly has never had to dig deep, never been "there."
Thank you for your review. It's one of the most truthful and honest reviews about this piece of crap. Want a movie with truth....Happiness, The Woodsman etc..Solitary Man is an example of mediocracy at it's best. If you are a real film person you will see it from the opening on...It's amateurish and rings false.
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