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Making
a connection: (l-r) West and Savané in Goodbye Solo.
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Quiet
Journey
By
John Brodeur
Goodbye
Solo
Directed
by Ramin Bahrani
You
can’t always save a man who doesn’t want to be saved. In Goodbye
Solo, the third film from Iranian-American director Ramin
Bahrani, we meet just such a man. William (Red West) is an
older man, probably around 70, with a face that shows his
years in fine detail. He gets into a cab and hands the operator
$1,000 to drive him, in 10 days, from Winston-Salem, N.C.,
to the peak of a mountain in Blowing Rock, a place where the
wind legendarily blows upward. There is no mention of a return
trip.
The driver, an immigrant from Senegal called Solo (Souléymane
Sy Savané), is understandably troubled by this mission. He
begins to ask William about his life and his family, only
to be told to mind his own business. But Solo persists—Solo
invites William into his home when they are unable to find
a motel; he introduces William to his ex-wife, Quiera (Carmen
Leyva) and her daughter, Alex (Diana Franco Galindo); they
go out drinking with Solo’s friends; and when he has a falling
out with Quiera, Solo briefly becomes motelmates with William.
But despite Solo’s attempts to break his fare’s gruff exterior,
Oct. 20 is fast approaching and the old man shows no signs
of changing course.
These two men couldn’t be more different. William is quiet
and keeps to himself; while generally polite, he seems profoundly
sad. Solo is animated, upbeat—he calls nearly everyone “big
dog”—and he puts forth an infectious optimism. (He’s studying
to be a flight attendant; when we meet him, he’s preparing
to take the test for a third time.)
The “unlikely friendship” film is a tried and true—and tired—Hollywood
tradition. So what makes Goodbye Solo such a winner?
The answer lies in the film’s quiet nature. It’s a study of
human nature, shot unobtrusively, with most of the film’s
action taking place behind the eyes of the lead characters.
There are clues given but they don’t necessarily lead to answers.
Except for a few brief bursts, the only action takes place
on the actors’ faces. There’s little to do with Hollywood
here, which is why it clicks: Were this film set in, say,
Manhattan, the bond between Solo and William, however hesitant,
would be unbelievable; the scant bits of musical soundtrack
are used as character points; the ending would be a massive
disappointment for the happily-ever-after crowd. This is no
spoiler: Much like William’s motivations, his outcome is almost
frustratingly vague. Bahrani doesn’t spoon-feed, but rather
invites curiosity. In doing so, he’s created a quiet wonder.
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At
Least There’s Some Pageantry
Angels
& Demons
Directed
by Ron Howard
Dan Brown wrote Angels & Demons before The Da
Vinci Code, and it’s noticeable; the novel is a like a
less-adept warm-up for the gazillion-selling, page-turning
formula that took dusty arcana to new heights of pop-culture
controversy. In 2006, The Da Vinci Code was made into
a stodgy, miscast movie. Tweaking Angels & Demons
into a sequel, director Ron Howard has heeded the legions
of critics and disappointed Brown fans by boosting the action
and picking up the pace (the streamlined script is by Akiva
Goldsman and David Koepp). But sheared of its labyrinthine
plotting, character sketches, and trails of talismans, Angels
& Demons becomes a more esoteric version of an Agatha
Christie or National Treasure movie. Only with better
backdrops: The film’s re-creation of hallowed Holy City locations
gives an enjoyable, pseudo-seriousness to the film’s ludicrous
twists and turns.
Once again, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks)
is summoned unexpectedly by an enigmatic messenger, this time
by an emissary from the Vatican. In Geneva, a brilliant scientist
has been murdered, and his top-secret, mind-bending creation—a
vial of anti-matter—has been stolen. In Rome, the Pope has
died, and four cardinals have been kidnapped. The connection
between these events is a single, obscure-but-dreaded word,
“Illuminati,” representing an ancient secret organization
of which Langdon is an expert. He teams with the scientist’s
partner, fetching physicist Vittoria Vetra (Ayelet Zurer),
to find the anti-matter vial before it blows up Rome, while
simultaneously assisting the Vatican in trying to rescue the
cardinals before the Illuminati carries out its threat to
murder them. It’s up to Langdon, with the help of the pope’s
personal assistant, Father McKenna (Ewan McGregor), and the
reluctant cooperation of a Vatican security commander (Stellan
Skarsgard), to save the papacy and its city.
Langdon is not quite as bland as was in Da Vinci Code;
he’s given a few lines of mild humor, and a more appropriate
haircut, though Hanks seems neutralized by Langdon’s dispassionate
opinion on centuries of Catholic persecution of scientific
free-thinkers like Galileo. The film’s narrative interest
comes from McGregor as the young camerlengo who is thrust
into power until the next pope is elected. McKenna is challenged
on damage-control protocol by a traditionalist cardinal (Armin
Mueller-Stahl), who serves as a mouthpiece for calm acceptance
of god’s will. The film’s real star power, however, are its
Eternal City locations (some of them reproduced by CGI), such
as a chapel containing a sculpture of the Ecstasy of St. Theresa.
Angels & Demons is a mediocre murder mystery, but
as a travelogue on religious iconography, it lights up the
screen.
—Ann
Morrow
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