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| Goodbye Solo (15)
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Dir. Ramin Bahrani, US, 2008, 91 mins
Cast: Souléymane Sy Savané, Red West, Diana Franco Galindo
Review by Richard Mellor
“Yo William! Yo, big dog!” So the effervescent Solo (Souléymane Sy Savané), a Senegalese taxi driver in the North Carolina town of Winston-Salem, greets his most enigmatic fare, the curmudgeonly William (Red West). This is the opening scene of Ramin Bahrani’s independently-made drama, and already we’re playing catch-up - quickly gleaning that William has previously offered to pay Solo big bucks for a one-way fare in two weeks’ time to the local beauty spot.
Their destination is known as Blowing Rock: a natural canyon so windy that myth has it humans will fan upwards should they jump and where William’s contemplating a scenic suicide. Appalled, curious and hungry for the cash in equal measure, Solo even so appoints himself as William’s cabbie of choice in the intervening fortnight and sets about dissuading his new “friend” from doing away with himself. To do this he seeks William’s trust, first by introducing him to his stepdaughter (Diana Franco Galindo) and later by arranging a hotel room for him. Nevertheless he finds it a struggle to unlock William’s secrets.
What’s initially notable about Goodbye Solo is the chalk-and-cheese balance between its main duo. While William produces only occasional mutters, Solo’s patois is loud, chipper and near incessant. Where Solo assists drug dealers and likes “big tiddies”; William listens to glum country numbers and watches baseball alone in his hotel room. And while William’s future plans seem resignedly short-term, Solo’s a glass-half-full man, revising textbooks in the hope of getting his dream flight-attendant job. And his big smile is never far away.
Cinema has had unlikely double-acts many times before of course. The refreshing thing about these odd bedfellows is that there’s no sudden switch from irritation to appreciation - just the occasional impasse. Repeatedly trying to dispense with Solo’s services, William resents the Senegalese even while coming to respect him, while gaining access to William’s world requires Solo to do the impossible: suppress all his natural bluster and find a coy subtlety. Theirs is an engrossing, sometimes agonising game of cat and mouse.
Slowly but surely Solo’s optimism fades, his immigrant version of the American Dream (a recurrent theme of Bahrani’s three feature films to date) becomes a nether world of pool halls, motels and false promises. And suddenly William seems the steadier, for at least he has control of his destiny. Indeed, considering how to help, Solo starts to wonder if the friendliest act of all is the very one he’s most inclined against: ferrying William to Blowing Rock as requested and taking the metaphorical back seat.
Regardless of where they’re sat, Bahrani films his chief characters from all angles in the claustrophobic cab. The camera work is particularly good – fine without being flashy – and injects this meditative essay with real style. The many unforgiving close-ups are especially potent: we see the flickers of doubt that betray Solo’s confident sheen and gasp at the palpable lack of hope etched on William’s gaunt face. As with his previous shoestring films, Bahrani has coaxed terrific performances out of unheralded names: Savané, a little-known African actor, and West, who was previously a stuntman and Elvis Presley’s bodyguard, no less.
But Bahrani’s greatest achievement is to avoid cheap scenes of sudden, great revelation. Instead, as in life itself, there are no easy answers at all in this fascinating character study, thus ensuring that the ending is never obvious. It is though a moving one – about the only sentimental moment Bahrani and his resilient characters allow us.
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