World Premiere of Solo, directed by Morgan O'Neill 2006
Solo is a slick crime drama that was created through Project Greenlight Australia. I was immediately interested in this film because as entertaining as Project Greenlight is in America, it has struggled to turn out successful finished projects (so much so I was a little surprised to find out it had even managed to find its way to Australia).
One thing is for sure, the Australian version of Project Greenlight seems to be much more successful in pulling the major stars into the production than the american version. How much of this is due to Australia's smaller (dare I say more friendly) film industry I can only speculate. The main character Jack Barrett is played by the excellent Collin Friels, but that's just scratching the surface of a cast that includes the likes of popular Aussie actors such as Bruce Spence and Vince Colosimo. Even the slightly less known actors such as actress Bojana Novakovic turn exceptional performances, unfortunatey, in the end this may be the best thing I can say about the film.
Morgan O'Neill said that the idea for this movie started with him considering how people reach a point and realize that there life really has been a waste and then what drives them to move forward from that point. Making that character a serial killer for the mob was something that he thought "would be fun". I think that if people are honest with themselves, everyone has had those moments in their own life and in that sense it is easy to relate to the film. The film does not delve deep enough into these issues however and ends up losing focus of that original intention in favor pursuing a more typical criminal genre flick such as any of Guy Ritchie's work.
It should be mentioned that the film was shot in approximately 22 days, so the level of technical quality that was achieved is quite impressive, especially considering first time director O'Neill also had to contend with the cameras from the show while he was filming. Thankfully O'Neill did not rely on mimicing other directors visual style in the genre.
The story itself is entertaining even if its filled with one cliche after another. Barrett has decided he can no longer take being a hitman for the mob, so he demands to be let out. Needless to say this does not make very many people happy. From the corrupt police to the mob itself, no one is willing to let Barrett slip away that easily. Complicating matters is Billie, a nosey girl from Sydney University who has decided to snoop around where she shouldn't in an effort to obtain information that will guarantee her honors on her thesis.
The mob decides to strike a deal with Barrett. Kill Billie and they will let him go. The only problem, Barrett's done with killing, much less killing a university student.
Sparked by occasional fits of humor and a speedy pace, it is an undeniably fun film if you don't go into it expecting much, but unfortunately it really doesn't branch much from the tried and true formula that has been used so much in the last 10 years. Seeming to sense this, O'Neill includes a ''surprise" ending that just seems to forced and to desperate to yield the response he probably hoped it would receive.
One last little note, the music is also well done, but again over used and unoriginal. It consists mainly of jazz or jazz infused tracks. The type of music that seems to be required for a film of this type, but the type that always feels a little hollow after the perfection of a score that Miles Davis created in Elevator to the Gallows.
**Two Stars
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