tMF | The Movie-Fanatic

Starring: Souleymane Sy Savane, Red West, Diana Franco Galindo, Lane 'Roc' Williams.
Director: Ramin Bahrani
Release Date: August 26, 2009
Running Time: 91 min
MPAA Rating: R
Distributor: Gigantic Pictures

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A man stands on the very top of Blowing Rock, the lone mountain where the snow gets blown backwards due to the forceful winds. He stands mightily on the very peak of the mountain which extends over multi-colored trees of numerous amounts, above the contorted clouds and the thickly layered fog. His stature atop this peak is un-swaying even as too many gusts of wind try to blow him over. He is upright, head held proudly, but with lonely eyes that seem to be observing intently a vast majority of souls, almost representing a God, who are not content with where their lives are or where they are going.

This particular scene of a man atop a mountain is director Ramin Bahrani's depiction of a God on planet Earth. His camera rarely does any work. It is transfixed to the nature of the environment (dark lonely nights and isolated days). Bahrani's previous two films, that depicted the same environment, dealt with foreigners in America interested and willing to sacrifice anything to obtain the American dream.
They were reduced to pity jobs such as hotdog vendor on the streets of New York City ("Man Push Cart") and auto mechanics working for minimal pay in New York City ("Chop Shop"). Bahrani goes a different way with his third feature "Goodbye Solo." Instead of pitting a foreigner against unfathomable odds, he places the foreigner in "Goodbye Solo" as a Christ like figure. His name is Solo (Souleymane Sy Savane), a cab driver from Africa trying rapidly to provide for his Mexican girlfriend, her child and activ ely pursuing a career as an airline pilot.

Though he is a foreigner working as a cab driver in North Carolina with unethical clients and struggling to support his girlfriend, he may resemble a typical Bahrani character if another character in the film did not exist. Having William (Red West), a man old enough to recall his better days, struggle to continue on with his life causes Solo to excel out of the typical Bahrani character and into a realm where he becomes mediator of William's life, or at least tries to be. William offers Solo a thousand dollars in a cab one night to drive him to Blowing Rock. After Solo asks why he wants to go there, which William gives no clear answer, he acknowledges the bleak fact that that location will be the destination for William's suicide. Red West is treading tough waters. His emotional options are confined to one in particular; dread. He does it wonderfully by transmitting a languid demeanor devoid of any signifier of happiness. The way he presents himself when walking and talking, and the way he looks is a distortion of human nature. This tone is hard to attempt let alone maintain throughout the film.

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Solo attempts to take on the Christ like role while trying to prevent William from his attempt at suicide. That leads to Solo trying to befriend William in any way possible. It can be viewed as an allegoric friendship between Christ and the wounded, cripple souls on the verge of suicide. Also when comparing these two men, one could easily see William as a man fed up with society, a pessimist to the most extreme, and Solo as a new comer to America searching for any friendship, an optimist to the most extreme. The two gel together to form a most believable relationship of two man on opposite sides of the spectrum.

It is Souleymane's energetic yet nuanced performance that is an essential representation of Bahrani's trio of films. His desire to meet and encounter new individuals and experiences is what makes him so lovable, so innocent and new. Souleymane's Solo is evidentially stuck in middle class America. In t he foreground of his one floor home the city skyline can be seen, noting how far away he actually is from attaining the American dream. Does he let that deter from his happiness? No. Solo does not let that affect him one bit. Like previous Bahrani characters Solo has a will so strong that it shields out any notion of materialism or capitalism. He is not a consumerist, he is an idealist. He holds on to a will that helps him succeed in life not necessarily in financial terms but in ways that his smile rarely separates itself from his face.

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