Goodbye Solo: Grade D

D
Goodbye Solo (2008)
Souleymane Sy Savane, Red West; Writer-Director Ramin Bahrani.

A pathologically cheerful Senegalese taxi driver (Savane) picks up an angry, misanthropic old man (West) in contemporary North Carolina. They agree that the driver will take him to the mountains in two weeks. They see each other several times before that and the driver realizes that the old man is depressed and possibly considering suicide. Gradually the men form the barest thread of a connection that could possibly be construed as friendship. There is no plot, no motivation, no outcome, no point to any of it. Each man denies his loneliness to himself and the other, but finds a tiny solace in caring. (I am generously attributing or imagining a theme that may not really be there.)

Acting by the two principals is very good, but without anything to hang on to, the story is just a set of unconnected scenes. At least 20% of the movie is composed of long shots of the taxi driving around, and short shots of the driver driving it. The rest of the movie is about as interesting. The relationship does not develop so much as creep along, so little is revealed about either character. Bahrani is expert at portraying the circumstances and struggles of hard-working immigrants (Chop Shop, Man Push Cart), but this project doesn’t come up to his standards, either narratively or photographically.

Dark Matter: Grade C

C
Dark Matter (2007)
Meryl Streep, Le Yiu, Aidan Quinn; Director Shi-Zheng Chen.

Le Yiu is one of a group of students from China who come to America for doctoral research in cosmology under a famous teacher (Quinn). Streep is a social facilitator who helps the students find their feet in the new culture. Le Yiu is a brilliant mathematician but proposes a thesis that goes against the professor’s pet theory so he does not get his Ph.D. and becomes depressed.

Nothing much happens in this movie. The dramatic turns are tense to anyone with advanced academic experience, but pretty boring to everyone else. Exploration of the Chinese students’ cross-cultural experience is realistic and insightful. The highlight of the movie is outstanding acting from Streep and Le Yiu. Their expressions seem real and heartfelt and make the movie worth seeing. However, since nothing happens until the very end, the movie is basically boring. And the ending was obviously an afterthought. It rings false, inconsistent with the character. Photography, directing, and music are all good, and the acting raises the picture to the high end of average.