Solitary Man
Director: Brian Koppelman & David Levien
With: Michael Douglas, Susan Sarandon, Jenna Fischer, Danny DeVito, Mary-Louise Parker, Imogen Poots, Jesse Eisenberg
Despite the trite set-up and the workman-like directing, the film rises on the strength of the acting. There is a surprise, or two, in the story, but you can see what’s coming almost from the beginning.
Ben Kalmen (Douglas) is a 60-year-old former auto dealer who used to be the biggest in the NY area, but he has lost everything because of personal failings, including his wife (Sarandon). Among these failings is being unfaithful to any woman he is involved with, and which he self-justifies because he may die at any time.
His girl friend Jordan (Parker) has a daughter Allyson (Poots) who wants to get into Kalmen’s college in Boston, so he accompanies the girl to meet with school officials. And, one thing leads to another.
Jordan is very well connected politically, and she shoots down Kalmen’s attempt to open another dealership. And, a bunch of other unpleasant things happen to him as well.
Douglas has played this role before, and is not tired or bored with the concept, because he nails Kalmen. Desperate, arrogant, slick and pathetic, the man is a born seducer and a sorry excuse for a human being. Yet, Douglas makes him sympathetic enough so that you cringe at his misfortunes, all the while you deplore his actions. Great performance, and good work by everyone.
B
Toy Story 3 (Animated 3-D)
Director: Lee Unkrich
Voices of: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Ned Beatty, Wallace Shawn, Don Rickles, Michael Keaton, etc.
Eleven years have gone by since the last Toy Story movie, and even though the situation is well-known, the writers have managed to make a compelling plot and a gratifying ending. Pixar has always paid as much attention to script as to technical stuff, and it shows.
Andy, now 17, is going off to college, and has to decide what to do with his toys. He can’t bear to part with Woody (Hanks), and wants the rest to be stored in the attic. The toys decide that this is the best they can hope for, but, through a series of blunders, the toys wind up being donated to a day care center.
Okay, not bad, they think, but the day care turns out to be a tyranny run by an embittered old teddy bear, Lotso (Beatty). The toys are thrown to the toddlers, who abuse and mangle them. Worse, they corrupt Buzz Lightyear (Allen) by reprogramming him, and he becomes their jailer.
When Woody finds out, he has to rescue them.
So far, not much different in approach from the other films, but the climactic scene, in which the toys are sent to a landfill, is so intense that it disturbed some of the adults in the audience. No spoilers here, but literal destruction seems imminent.
One of the new characters is Ken (Keaton), the Barbie-doll accessory boy friend. Keaton plays him like a gender-confused metrosexual, and it is pretty funny.
Wonderfully animated, although if you can see it in 2-D, do it. The 3-D adds nothing to the film. All the voice work, as usual, is terrific.
One quibble. The expected Pixar short feature at the beginning is not up to previous standards. It’s cute and clever, but no more than that. Won’t hurt you, though.
B+
Jonah Hex
Director: Jimmy Hayward
With: Josh Brolin, John Malkovich, Michael Fassbender, Megan Fox, Will Arnett, Aidan Quinn
Another comic book movie. The target audience is 13-year-old boys, and it should please them. Loud, violent and nasty, with a science fiction element from the steam-punk world. Hex (Brolin) is a bounty hunter in the years right after the Civil War. He has been disfigured by Quentin Turnbull (Malkovich), who has also murdered his family. President Grant hires Hex to find Turnbull who has stolen a weapon of mass destruction with which he plans to destroy Washington DC, and win the war for the South. Get it?
The movie is basically a chase, as Hex pursues Turnbull and the weapon. The script is just dumb, despite a few good moments and ideas. There is also a heavy mystical element.
Not for serious movie-goers.
C-