Review: ‘Goodbye Solo’

A Senegalese taxi drivers attempts to befriend a grumpy old man is at the heart of GOODBYE SOLO, an observant two-character drama from director Rahmin Bahrani (MAN PUSH CART). Souléymane Sy Savané stars as Solo, an immigrant living in Winston-Salem North Carolina who is studying to be a flight attendant while making ends meet by driving a taxi at night. He’s a happy joker with a positive attitude and toothy smile who likes to call his passengers “Big Dog”. When a weathered soul named William (played by Red West) enters his cab one night, Solo decides the sad old guy needs a friend. In addition to hiring him as a regular driver, William offers Solo $1,000 to pick him on a set date, take him to Blowing Rock, a mountaintop along the state’s long Blue Ridge Parkway, and leave him there. Solo comes to care about his passenger, concludes William is planning this final trip as a suicide, and imposes himself in the older man’s life. He takes some of William’s medicine to a pharmacist to find out whether they are to prescribed for someone with a terminal disease and he spies on William as he makes small talk with a mysterious teenage boy who works the ticket counter at a local movie theatre. He even lets William spend a night in the home he shares with his family. Solo means well but he’s got problems of his own including an unsupportive wife and a gig chauffeuring drug dealers around. The script by Bahrani and Bahareh Azimi introduces these two interesting characters but does not give them much to do as it slowly meanders towards it’s ambiguous conclusion.

GOODBYE SOLO is about the way that people can be changed in significant ways by encounters with others. It’s a decent film but I’m surprised at the great praise it’s received at recent festivals. It’s pace is often sluggish and it’s got that tiresome detached indie vibe that may have seemed more fresh a decade ago. A bond does develop between the two men but William is so crusty and foul-tempered, the kind of curmudgeon who doesn’t have a good word for anyone, I’m unclear why Solo initially wants to befriend him so badly and is so damn determined to crack his grouchy exterior. Handsome African TV star Souléymane Sy Savané is fine as Solo but seems to rely too much on his great movie smile. 73 year old character actor/stuntman Red West has never starred in a movie and is mostly famous for being Elvis Presley’s longtime buddy. He’s got a leathery face, sad eyes and wise-old-man face like Richard Farnsworth or Seymour Cassell that can be plugged into a movie and not require much back story. After years of supporting roles (including ones in most of Elvis’ films), West gets his chance to star in GOODBYE SOLO as a man of few words and has a commanding, wizened presence (and I’m sure plenty of great stories to tell about Elvis). He’s better than the material he’s been given with GOODBYE SOLO and I hope to see him in more films.

[Overall: 2.5 out of 5 stars]