Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.5

Solace Blu-ray Movie Review

Cold comfort.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 10, 2017

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: the FBI is on the hunt for a vicious serial killer and they enlist a character played by Anthony Hopkins who has something in common with that very murderer, with the Hopkins character ultimately teaming with a pretty blonde female FBI agent trying to get a handle on a case with irrational elements. While Solace might seem like a retread of at least some elements of The Silence of the Lambs, the film actually (reportedly) began as a proposed sequel to Se7en. Solace has a fairly clunky opening act (and some might even argue opening two acts), but kind of interestingly it picks up steam just when many thrillers start to tip over into cliché. What begins as a more or less traditional police procedural, albeit one with a paranormal or psychic edge (a la Man on a Swing), becomes something at least a bit more nuanced and even tinged with elements of ethics as the story reveals that this particular serial killer may actually be an angel of mercy of sorts.

Note: Some unavoidable plot points are discussed below. Those wary of even potential spoiler material are encouraged to skip to the technical aspects of the review.

The film opens with the shot of a weirdly smiling bald man who looks a bit like Lex Luthor after having achieved nirvana. It turns out the unfortunate gentleman is the latest victim in a string of identical murders where the killer has executed people by thrusting an icepick like weapon into the backs of their necks at the bases of their skulls and then directly into the medulla oblongata, resulting in instantaneous (and supposedly) painless death. The FBI’s investigation team includes Joe Merriweather (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), a veteran agent who is mentoring relative newcomer Katherine Cowles (Abbie Cornish). In some probably too quickly handled expository material, Joe tells Katherine he needs the assistance of John Clancy (Anthony Hopkins), whom Katherine insists is unstable (based on Joe’s own comments about his former collaborator).

Clancy is a psychic who has aided the FBI in the past, but he has been on self imposed hiatus since the death of his daughter from leukemia a couple of years previously. Joe and Katherine drive out into the woods where Clancy lives in a kind of ramshackle bungalow, and of course (Clancy being a psychic and all), Clancy is expecting them. He immediately demurs getting involved in the case, but Katherine supposedly leaves the case files for him to review. (Note to whomever was continuity supervisor on this film: the master shot of Hopkins after the two FBI agents leave his home clearly shows no case files on the counter where they should be, just one sign of what was evidently a trouble plagued shoot, one which was followed by even more tribulation in post-production when Relativity filed for bankruptcy, delaying the film’s release.)

In a none too surprising development, Clancy of course does opt to join Joe and Katherine in attempting to track down the killer. In the meantime, Clancy has been prone to several troubling visions involving his partners, in brief cutaway montages which provide a host of fleeting images which suggest several characters may be meeting horrific fates. A literally operatic scene which finds Clancy traipsing through the unlikely setting of an evocatively lit field on his property accompanied by the strains of Puccini’s La Boheme turns out not to be (just) a stylistic flourish, but a rather nice tease that plays into a note the killer has left for the cops, one which taunts them to try to identify him (or her, not that there’s much question about which gender the villain is).

This opening section of Solace is frankly more than a bit on the silly side, featuring supposedly “intense” interchanges between Clancy and Katherine, while Joe kind of hangs around the edges of the story, evidently dealing with some sort of crisis at home (one which is finally revealed later in the film). It’s high concept hokum, a concept that director Afonso Poyart tries to inject with the same stylistic ornamentations that directors like David Fincher and Michael Mann have brought to their at least somewhat similar serial killer efforts. It’s debatable how effective Poyart’s approach is, but the good news is the distractions of quick cutting and needless aerial shots can’t really detract from the quiet power of Hopkins’ performance, one which seems overly mannered in the early going but which attains a kind of poetic grace as the film continues.

Something rather interesting happens shortly after the hour mark, however. Clancy has already determined that the victims, seemingly a rather disparate lot that has included everything from a small Caucasian child to an elderly African American woman, have something in common—they were all going to die anyway from various diseases or ailments. He also figures out that his nemesis is a psychic, too, and one with much more finely developed powers than even Clancy has (this is where the payoff to that opera allusion enters the fray). That gives Clancy momentary jitters about proceeding (in another needless detour that is dismissed nearly as quickly as it’s presented).

It probably goes without saying, considering the two marquee stars, that Colin Farrell turns out to be the bad guy, and the film in fact doesn’t really shy away from revealing this element, with Farrell’s character Charles actually sitting down with Clancy in a bar to discuss the ethical ramifications of putting someone out of misery when all they have to look forward to is weeks and/or months of distress and pain before their eventual demise. Clancy’s own pain revolving around his daughter’s protracted case of leukemia enters the emotional environment of the film (and provides a bit of foreshadowing for a little sting at the end of the film which at least some “cinematic psychics” are going to see coming a mile off).

Solace cheats at a couple of key moments, providing scenes that turn out to be “potentials” rather than “realizations”, and then cutting back to the actual timeline to reveal the authentic outcome. That’s another probably needless stylistic element that doesn’t really add much to the proceedings, other than providing momentary shock value. The film still ultimately gets to a rather fascinating analysis of whether or not mercy killings are in fact merciful, in a rather bracing update of traditional serial killer material. The extraneous sidebars that scenarists Ted Griffin and Sean Bailey and director Poyart add to the mix don’t actually aid things in any meaningful way, but the good news is they similarly don’t seriously debilitate the film’s nicely ominous mood.

Note: My colleague Brian Orndorf evidently was much less content with Solace than I was. You can read Brian's thoughts on the film here.

Solace Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Solace is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.41:1. I haven't been able to track down what camera captured this outing, but a couple of online sources at least confirm a general digital shoot lensed by Brendan Galvin. This transfer offers a perfectly competent if at times not overly inspired looking presentation, one that benefits from some of the cool techniques aiding the "visions", but one which also suffers at times from general murkiness throughout some of the dimly lit "real life" moments. Detail levels are generally quite high, at least when contrast isn't pushed and lighting allows for it. Some of the grading choices, like the pretty lavender and pink hues the infuse Clancy's memories of his daughter, are quite effective, even if they can lead to a minimalizing of fine detail levels. Other choices, like a really weird and sickly looking green- yellow tint that is part of a showdown scene between Katherine and Clancy in a hotel, do little other than call attention to themselves. With a fairly brief running time and no huge supplements taking up real estate, the transfer encounters no compression anomalies despite being housed on a BD-25.

Solace Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

While perhaps just a trifle hackneyed at times, the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix on this Blu-ray has some very effective sound design which fully engages the surround channels at regular intervals. While expected sequences like the (obligatory?) car chase provide a glut of immersive effects, there's some more subtle and interesting offerings that seek to aurally depict Clancy's visionary states, where washes of sound can pan through the side and rear channels in an almost dreamlike way. BT's score owes more than a tip of the hat to some of Bernard Herrmann's iconic compositions, albeit reimagined now for synthesizers, and it also provides good surround opportunities. Dialogue is presented cleanly and clearly and with good priortization.

Solace Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary with Director Afonso Poyart


• Visions and Voices: The Making of Solace (1080p; 8:40) is the traditional mix of interviews and snippets from the film.


• Solace Trailer (1080p; 1:54)

Solace Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Solace, despite some manifest flaws, was a near miss for me, and fans of the cast may well want to check it out, for it does get into some material that certainly is not part of the traditional serial killer milieu. That said, the film flaunts style where it really doesn't need to, and some of the tangents are unnecessary as well. Technical merits (especially audio) are strong for those considering a purchase.