Thursday, August 13, 2009

Goodbye Solo in Hickory, NC


A character-actor framework with two real knockouts, an old guy named Red West and newcomer Souéymane Sy Savané. Remember that last name! (and see ANY other movies featuring him) There were also three or four good support roles in a cab driver called Mamadou (Mamadou Lam) and Alex (Diana Franco Galindo). J. Malaak Juuk had as brief a role as one can get but played it startlingly well as the motel janitor. Other supporting roles were professionally played

Writer is Bahareh Azimi who is listed as a water engineer, architect, interior designer and songwriter who also co-authored a previous movie. Probably the movie’s weakest point is its story and screenplay. How the connection of the two stars ever started in the beginning of the movie was simply ignored. No revelation for the reason subsequently surfaced as the movie progressed. The audience has to just ignore that and wait for the good acting to take hold. Too bad - with a good "hook" at the beginning, this movie could have been be a real seat-clencher. It's still worth it. West hit home run after home run all night long and Savané will amaze you - this guy is a former flight attendant and fashion model, but look out world!

Lots of good revelation of character, no real character development. The main story has to be the concept of family, and about countries that have strong families and those that really have none.

This movie was brought to Hickory, NC, by Alan Jackson and his Footcandle Film Society. For more information see http://www.footcandle.org/