An original and thoughtful human drama, Goodbye Solo looks at relationships and loneliness while proving director Ramin Bahrani's is an important American voice.
An original and thoughtful human drama, Goodbye Solo looks at relationships and loneliness while proving director Ramin Bahrani's is an important American voice.
audience
81
liked it
Average Rating: 3.9/5
User Ratings: 4,038
A Senegalese taxi driver living in Winston-Salem, NC, makes the decision to befriend a depressive passenger with a tragic plan in director Ramin Bahrani's deeply humanistic drama. Solo (Souléymane Sy Savané) is a cab driver who believes that everyone should be engaged and concerned with one another, and thus lacks the self-conscious view of relationships so prevalent in North American society. When a 70-year-old passenger named William (Red West) hails Solo's cab and he books him for another
ride in two weeks during the course of the ride, it quickly becomes apparent during their negotiation that the man isn't planning to return from his impending trip. Troubled at the thought of what his passenger has planned, Solo does his best to strike up a friendship and convince William to reconsider. But William harbors a pain more deep-rooted than Solo first senses, displaying a visible desire for privacy that immediately puts him at odds with the genuinely concerned cab driver. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
Every moment -- including a physically exhausting climactic scene that both confounds expectations and compounds the film's poetic majesty -- is evidence of a masterpiece.
The lack of melodrama coupled with moments of quiet celebration make Goodbye Solo a more uplifting tale than one might expect with such a less-than-joyous premise.
Un entrañable y sutil retrato humano, sostenido por el choque y la complementariedad entre dos caracteres muy distintos. Excelente elección de actores que parecen interpretarse a sí mismos.
Hopeful about the rewards that can be mined from the broadening of perspective that comes with getting to know someone outside of your usual social zone.
Working to a spare screenplay, Bahrani offers none of the usual clues about either the cabbie's surprising determination to prevent the tragedy or the old man's reasons for suicide. This doesn't always help the quiet drama.
An endearing character piece shot through with beauty and humility in which, thanks to his leads' open, sometimes vulnerable performances, tolerance and respect take precedence.
The strange power of those final moments - at once tender, tragic and triumphant - grant this unassuming drama about saying goodbye to Solo the status of a minor masterpiece played in an appropriately minor key.
You get the sense that writer-director Ramin Bahrani is mystified by America's abandonment of its elderly, and there's a whiff of disapproval in his treatment of this theme, but it's only a whiff.
If cinematic form follows cinematic function then Goodbye Solo is a perfect Mercedes of a movie. It is comprised of a quietly purring but powerful narrative engine.
Nothing short of Excellent. About a man who is about to end his life, and Solo played by Souléymane Sy Savané does everything he can't to prevent it from happing. Not one you will see on any film list but a top ten in my book. 5 Stars. Filmed in and around Blowing Rock North Carolina.
August 26, 2010
Bruce Bruce
Super Reviewer
It deserved more attention.This small,independent movie easily touches our heart.
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