Goodbye Solo

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; handcrafted scenes; intuitive, delicate acting; and both technique and technology that draw no attention to themselve

Like Bahrani’s previous film, Man Push Cart, Goodbye Solo launches into its story without credits, mimicking the opening of a book. This is no accident, as Bahrani’s film world is all about narrative drive, character development, and all things literary as well as visual.

Two men sit in a taxi – the client, William (Red West), arranging with the driver, Solo (Souléymane Sy Savané), to drop him off in exactly two weeks time at Blowing Rock, a landmark local cliff-face. Blowing Rock is unique for having the wind oftentimes blow forcefully upwards along its face, and aboriginal legends tell of natives jumping off only to be blown right back.

The film was shot in Bahrani’s hometown of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, the once proud home of the J Reynolds tobacco company – a company, not unlike William, cast aside by the sweep of history. Over the course of a beautifully paced film, William and Solo form an unlikely friendship which will impact upon both of their lives.

Solo is a Senegalese cab driver working to provide a better life for his young family. William is a tough and world-weary man of the South, shouldering the burden of a life’s worth of anger and regrets. These characters enact both sides of the coin that is the American Dream, and both men come to find that they have need for the other.

The episodic structure of Goodbye Solo speaks once more to the metaphorical, page-turning quality of Bahrani’s films, which keep audiences engrossed in their humanistic character studies and textual subtleties. And in common with other Bahrani film worlds, Solo is highly successful in its sensitive use of local non-professional actors and authentic location shooting to create a rich geographic context.

But it is Souléymane Sy Savané as Solo, and Red West as William, whose low-key and beautifully nuanced characterisations make this already special script so successful on screen. And while the weight of the film rests on these two characters, Diane Galindo adds great delicacy as Alex, the little girl whose precociousness of spirit infuses both William and Solo with a sense of life’s vitality and continuity.

Goodbye Solo makes it clear that although it is William who is the Caucasian citizen of the town, it is Solo, the African immigrant, who seems to fit in best. His charming, friendly and positive demeanour endears him to people. He’s prepared to be open. He believes in the upside of the American Dream. In contrast, William’s American Dream – if he ever had one – is tarnished and coming to an end. But then, Goodbye Solo seems to assert that America is its immigrants. They may not always have a voice, but theirs will always be the country’s story.

James B Evans

Anticipation:

High time for a quiet, profoundly human and touching film.

Enjoyment:

It is not a ‘feel good film’, but it feels good to watch.

In Retrospect:

The issue of how best to exist in a meaningless universe is timeless. It is art but not necessarily art house.