If the Internet Movie Database is accurate, Red West appeared uncredited in over two dozen film and TV productions during the 1960s before finally earning any sort of billing. Of course, when you can count Elvis Presley among your close friends, you can probably afford to be patient. (West also spent many years as the King's bodyguard and even penned a couple of his hits.) And if the IMDb is further to be believed, Souleymane Sy Savane has never before acted in front of a movie camera. The weary, 72-year-old veteran and the young, bright-eyed novice -- it sounds like the genesis of a television sitcom. Instead, it's what happens when writer-director Ramin Bahrani makes a modest little film named Goodbye Solo (***1/2 out of four).
Set in Bahrani's hometown of Winston-Salem, this film festival favorite has drawn easy comparisons to last year's The Visitor but actually feels more similar in structure and tone to Abbas Kiarostami's A Taste of Cherry. Savane plays Solo, a Senegalese immigrant who makes his living as a cab driver. His latest fare is William, a crusty old codger who wants to hire Solo to drive him to Blowing Rock, where he plans to kill himself. Solo is rocked by this confession and spends the days leading up to William's planned suicide trying to talk the septuagenarian out of going through with it.
One of the greatest compliments that can be paid to any motion picture is to state that its characters are so richly defined, you can easily imagine them having lives outside the parameters of what's shown on screen. That's certainly the case here. West makes William a man of mystery and regret, a tired soul who can no longer grapple with the demons haunting his every move. Yet the real treat is the title character. As marvelously portrayed by Savane, Solo is the eternal optimistic, but not in any sort of grating, happy-go-lucky manner. We're privy to his fears and doubts, yet what we take away most from him is the sense that no matter how tough things become, he makes us believe that we can always find something positive or pleasant to keep us going. He's a wonderful movie character, but we find ourselves wishing he was something more concrete. I imagine all of us could use some quality Solo time in our lives.
GOODBYE SOLO
***1/2
DIRECTED BY Ramin Bahrani
STARS Souleymane Sy Savane, Red West
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