Glancing through the NY Times film reviews last week, “Goodbye Solo” caught my eye. Set in Winston-Salem, a Senegalese cab driver and a washed-up old man develop an unlikely friendship as they traverse the roads of North Carolina. I was born in Winston-Salem and went back there for college, so the novelty of seeing W-S on the big screen at the Angelika Film Center in Soho was an opportunity I could not let pass me by. As it turns out, I was rewarded for my curiosity.
The story was original and moving, the characters were unique and engaging, and the acting was simply beautiful. I got to see a seedier side of Winston-Salem than the one I experienced during college, and the shots of the drive up the Blue Ridge Parkway for the final scene in Blowing Rock were gorgeous and breathtaking.
Solo (the cab driver) and William (the washed-up old man) begin their adventure when William asks Solo to be his driver for a trip to Blowing Rock on October 20th. After some sleuthing, Solo discovers that William plans on killing himself that very same day by jumping off of Blowing Rock. Solo spends the rest of the movie trying to develop a friendship with William…and trying to persuade him to live.
The story of an unlikely friendship between two drastically different characters is always ripe with possibility. In “Goodbye Solo,” some of the most powerful moments are when we get to see just how alike these two seemingly different characters are. There is a certain universality in the woes of mankind that tie us all together, and it’s always fascinating to see how our basic struggles in life are the same across all different ethnic, cultural, and economic divides. We all love and want to take care of those we love. We all experience pain and hardships and disappointments, but we have a choice as to how we react to them.
I appreciated the lack of sentimentality in the way this story was told. For instance, the use of music was almost always incorporated into the action of the scene rather than as something floating in the background to underscore the story. I felt like this choice heightened the un-sentimentality of the style. We are not being told how to feel about this story – we are just being presented with these characters and their lives and it’s up to us to form our own opinions. As a result, I find that I can’t stop thinking about this movie and these characters and the tragedy inherent in being alive.
If you are looking for a good story, you will find it here. [Goodbye Solo Official Site]
