Solace
(Afonso Poyart)

(Afonso Poyart)

I felt like I could have been the third psychic in this film as I saw everything this film was going to do before it happened. Solace tries to be many things, but fails to be a poor imitation of all of them. A great cast is weighed down by bad direction, uninspired chase sequences and Anthony Hopkins bad hair.
John lives in isolation, the death of his daughter was too much for him to handle. His old friend Joe asks him to come back to help them catch a serial killer. John has a gift, he's psychic and Joe wants to use this to their advantage in catching the killer. There's only one problem, the killer is psychic too and far more powerful than John.
Interesting set-up, but the film never reaches its full potential, instead in meanders around in mediocrity that it becomes a chore to get through to the credits. The film starts to gain momentum when the killer, played by Colin Farrell turns up, but by then I feel like I already had checked out and was more interested in seeing what Hopkins' hair would do next, instead of the story.
Visually, Poyart steals from the Nicolas Cage crapfest, Next, to showcase possible outcomes for the characters. The rest of the film feels like it could have been made for basic television. It's a surprise to me that there is a talented cast here because the material shouldn't warrant one. Along with Hopkins and Farrell, it also stars Jeffery Dean Morgan and Abbie Cornish. A talented cast does not equal great performances though and Cornish deserves the "all hustle" award for trying, but ultimately doing nothing.
Apparently the first draft of this script was written to be a sequel to Se7en. After whatever happened to stop that, it was turned into this. Interesting premise, stalled by everything that managed to put it to the screen.
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"A laugh can be a very powerful thing. Why, sometimes in life, it's the only weapon we have."
Suspect's Reviews