Within two minutes of the start of Ramin Bahrani's new film Goodbye Solo, the titular character, Solo (Souléymane Sy Savané), a Senegalese cabbie living in North Carolina, asks his fed up and begrudged-to-be-alive customer, William (Red West), "You're not gonna jump, right?", and up until the film's close, this becomes a question that hounds Solo and the viewer equally. An exceptional drama that finally opened in the U.K. on a limited run this week, Goodbye Solo is a subtle and meditative look at sadness, alienation, and what connects us as human beings.
The setup is simple; Bahrani throws the viewer straight into the first meeting between Solo and William inside a cab, with William offering to pay Solo $1000 for a $200 fare to Blowing Rock if he agrees in advance to do it. Suspicious that William is going to throw himself from Blowing Rock, Solo cannot tear himself away despite William being cantankerous and closed-up, and decides to try and convince him not to end his life.
On the other hand, Solo is a rather charming and likable fellow, who is working towards becoming an airline assistant in order to adequately provide for his pregnant wife (Carmen Leyva) and her daughter, Alex (Diana Franco Galindo). Entirely converse to William, he is affable, open, and hopeful; thus he is the perfect vessel through which this mystery story unravels, for he is sympathetic and takes the journey with us to see what William is going to do at Blowing Rock.
What I admire most about Goodbye Solo is just how genuine it is; we get the inkling early on that Solo is a truly caring and optimistic young man, and so his concern towards William doesn't feel forced or overly contrived. His outlook is also interesting as juxtaposed with William's defeatist attitude; the film remarks cultural differences, such as how in America, families do not look after their old, and Solo compares this with how he will be cared for in Senegal when he is William's age. By proxy, the viewer of course associates this with their starkly opposed outlooks on life, and while the film refuses to be judgemental, it causes one to consider whether William's bitterness is a cause or a by-product of his loneliness. Solo's life is far from perfect either, though; his wife doesn't appreciate his efforts to make a life for them, suggesting that perhaps Solo is just a few years away from the decades of loneliness that William has endured.
Through and through, it is the emotional plausibility that makes this film so compelling; it staunchly refuses to succumb to melodrama. Little gestures like William graciously accepting a beer from Solo exhibit Bahrani's nuanced hand for human interactions, and in not making William an entirely lost cause, he also doesn't set himself a task too difficult, or risk contrivance. It's other little nuances also, such as William's ability to help Solo prepare for his airline test, which impressively does away with stereotypes and also provides small hints about these characters; despite his Southern accent and the implication that he's a no-nonsense, impatient old man, there are these small glimpses that tell the attentive viewer so much.
Agonisingly drip-feeding the viewer morsels of information about the central mystery works best in films that are short; in that stead, the conceit doesn't becoming too tiring or repetitive, and Goodbye Solo, at 91 minutes, perfectly understands this concept. In many ways it's frustrating that it takes so long to find out anything about William (and by the end we still don't know that much), but that's a testament to the living colour of Bahrani's characters, that they are compelling enough for us to want to know more.
Knowing full well that this scenario is likely headed for a rather uneasy climax, intrigue transfers over to Solo in the latter portion of the film, as we become immersed in his life, and wonder how he will stop this joyless man from taking his own life, while juggling a new child and a broken marriage. Few will expect the film to be tense, but enormous suspense is wrung out from the fact that Bahrani has written the film to such a point that either conclusion – William killing himself or in fact having other intentions – would be emotionally satisfying and plausible, and so the climactic ride to Blowing Rock, although quiet and minimalist, leaves the viewer to stew in the insecurity of their own making.
The key on which the film ends is going to probably frustrate as many viewers as it satisfies, and while many will class it as a "non-ending", it is an end emphatic of so much more than a simple question of "did he, didn't he?". These notions of uncertainty, of the abyss, are in tone with the authentic existential themes present throughout.
The setup is simple; Bahrani throws the viewer straight into the first meeting between Solo and William inside a cab, with William offering to pay Solo $1000 for a $200 fare to Blowing Rock if he agrees in advance to do it. Suspicious that William is going to throw himself from Blowing Rock, Solo cannot tear himself away despite William being cantankerous and closed-up, and decides to try and convince him not to end his life.
On the other hand, Solo is a rather charming and likable fellow, who is working towards becoming an airline assistant in order to adequately provide for his pregnant wife (Carmen Leyva) and her daughter, Alex (Diana Franco Galindo). Entirely converse to William, he is affable, open, and hopeful; thus he is the perfect vessel through which this mystery story unravels, for he is sympathetic and takes the journey with us to see what William is going to do at Blowing Rock.
What I admire most about Goodbye Solo is just how genuine it is; we get the inkling early on that Solo is a truly caring and optimistic young man, and so his concern towards William doesn't feel forced or overly contrived. His outlook is also interesting as juxtaposed with William's defeatist attitude; the film remarks cultural differences, such as how in America, families do not look after their old, and Solo compares this with how he will be cared for in Senegal when he is William's age. By proxy, the viewer of course associates this with their starkly opposed outlooks on life, and while the film refuses to be judgemental, it causes one to consider whether William's bitterness is a cause or a by-product of his loneliness. Solo's life is far from perfect either, though; his wife doesn't appreciate his efforts to make a life for them, suggesting that perhaps Solo is just a few years away from the decades of loneliness that William has endured.
Through and through, it is the emotional plausibility that makes this film so compelling; it staunchly refuses to succumb to melodrama. Little gestures like William graciously accepting a beer from Solo exhibit Bahrani's nuanced hand for human interactions, and in not making William an entirely lost cause, he also doesn't set himself a task too difficult, or risk contrivance. It's other little nuances also, such as William's ability to help Solo prepare for his airline test, which impressively does away with stereotypes and also provides small hints about these characters; despite his Southern accent and the implication that he's a no-nonsense, impatient old man, there are these small glimpses that tell the attentive viewer so much.
Agonisingly drip-feeding the viewer morsels of information about the central mystery works best in films that are short; in that stead, the conceit doesn't becoming too tiring or repetitive, and Goodbye Solo, at 91 minutes, perfectly understands this concept. In many ways it's frustrating that it takes so long to find out anything about William (and by the end we still don't know that much), but that's a testament to the living colour of Bahrani's characters, that they are compelling enough for us to want to know more.
Knowing full well that this scenario is likely headed for a rather uneasy climax, intrigue transfers over to Solo in the latter portion of the film, as we become immersed in his life, and wonder how he will stop this joyless man from taking his own life, while juggling a new child and a broken marriage. Few will expect the film to be tense, but enormous suspense is wrung out from the fact that Bahrani has written the film to such a point that either conclusion – William killing himself or in fact having other intentions – would be emotionally satisfying and plausible, and so the climactic ride to Blowing Rock, although quiet and minimalist, leaves the viewer to stew in the insecurity of their own making.
The key on which the film ends is going to probably frustrate as many viewers as it satisfies, and while many will class it as a "non-ending", it is an end emphatic of so much more than a simple question of "did he, didn't he?". These notions of uncertainty, of the abyss, are in tone with the authentic existential themes present throughout.