According to Colwell

Jeff Daniels plays Richard Dunn, a frustrated writer who, despite have a truckload of unsold copies of his first novel apparently has a contract and deadline with his publisher for a second. He and his wife Claire (Lisa Kudrow) rent a house in a small New England town for Richard to have the peace and quiet to write his book while Claire spends the weeks in Manhattan as a prominent surgeon. But Richard is a writer who seems to loathe writing, or at least loathe himself. He feels useless and unimportant and incompetent. Enter his imaginary friend, Captain Excellent (Ryan Reynolds). The Captain gives voice to Richard’s inner dialogue, but also gives him the occasional pep speech. “I am bolstered”, Richard says after one such speech.

Although shy (as one might expect of a middle-aged writer who can’t write and has an imaginary superhero friend) Richard strikes up a friendship with a disaffected high school student under the guise of hiring her to babysit his non-existent baby. Abby (Emma Stone) is able to share some of her problems with the less-mature-than-his-years Richard, and Richard finds in her someone he can talk to without pretense. He is painfully inept and uncomfortable in the world of successful professionals inhabited by his wife.

Paper Man is funny and affecting, though not terribly so in either sense. At times it seems to be trying too hard to be about quirky characters, such as when it forces Richard to ride a small girl’s bicycle into town. He doesn’t bother to raise the seat to more closely match his frame, or to borrow a bike from Abby, for that matter. And Claire’s character is short-changed a bit. She is a loving wife whose crime is to be be successful and uncomprehending of her husband’s incomprehensible behavior. Or at least incomprehensible to her. Unlike us, she does not get to see his dialog with Captain Excellent (nor does Richard share with Claire the doubts and feelings he shares with Abby). But both Richard and Abby are fully developed and interesting characters, and it is a pleasure to watch their relationship unfold.

Michael Douglas’s Ben Kalmen seems to have it all until, in Solitary Man’s opening scene, he learns that his doctor is not happy with his EKG. Fast forward 6 and a half years (a peculiarly non-round number) and he seems happier than ever. Kalmen, a big time BMW dealership owner in the New York area, has a pretty younger girlfriend (Jordan, played by Mary-Louise Parker), a swank Manhattan apartment, an endless supply of black button-down shirts, and a knack for picking up yet more younger women behind Jordan’s back. But we soon learn that those 6 (and a half) years were not so kind to Ben. Ignoring his doctor’s advice for tests on his heart, he instead decided to pursue his idea of living life to the fullest. Seizing the day for Ben meant seizing whatever young woman he could lure to his bed and seizing a lot of money through shady and illegal deals. Having paid his debt to society in the form of huge fines and his debt to his ex-wife (Susan Sarandon), it turns out that Ben is struggling to re-establish himself with his well-connected (and very wealthy) girlfriend, Jordan.

His daughter Susan (Jenna Fischer) and her husband and son provide the counterexample to Ben’s devil-may-care approach to life. Her family is safe, secure, and happy. Ben criticizes it for being too safe, even while trying to mooch some cash from them to stay afloat. His decisions inevitably isolate him, but of all the careless choices he makes, there is only one that really screws him. And it his not so much his womanizing behavior that costs him his family and friends, as it is his financial failings. Ironically, had one particular line not been spoken, his selfish approach to life would have been vindicated, at least in his own eyes. And even as it stands, it is not clear how he feels about his choices those past 6 (and a half) years. Ben seems to recognize that his behavior is inexcusable, and he neither makes excuses nor asks for forgiveness. This allows him to be a likable character even while he is a complete cad. One gets the feeling that Douglas likes him too.