Solace **½ (2015, Anthony Hopkins, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Abbie Cornish, Colin Farrell, Marley Shelton, Xander Berkeley) – Movie Review

Anthony Hopkins stars as a psychic doctor working with an FBI agent (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and a criminal psychologist (Abbie Cornish) to find a serial killer (Colin Farrell), in the 2015 American mystery thriller film Solace.

Anthony Hopkins, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Abbie Cornish and Colin Farrell star in director Afonso Poyart’s 2015 American mystery thriller film Solace. 

Director Afonso Poyart’s 2015 serial killer thriller film Solace provides a good role for the 77-year-old Anthony Hopkins – it’s the main role, when star parts for Sir A are difficult to organise. He grabs it eagerly, not too eagerly, and hits the spot pretty square on. Mind you, he is the film’s producer. He even does a bit of running!

Hopkins plays a police psychic doctor called John Clancy, who is called back into working with the FBI by old mate Special Agent Joe Merriweather (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) to help him and his co-worker FBI criminal psychologist Dr Katherine Cowles (Abbie Cornish) hunt down a prolific serial killer. The movie has a couple of unusual ideas – the police psychic and the serial killer, who believes in providing the solace of the title for his many victims.

He’s nutty enough not to see himself as a serial killer at all. He’s a good guy in his head, putting folks out of their misery. Mmm, interesting! I won’t tell you too much, it’ll spoil it.

Hopkins’s psychic gifts include knowing whether to turn left or right in a car chase, indeed he really has a gift second to none, though a close second is the psychic police dog that threatens to take over the movie, till the dog idea’s swiftly dropped. A psychic police dog? Mmm, interesting!

Director Afonso Poyart’s movie is slick and fast-moving, with a flashy, frenzied film-making style, as well as tense and nasty in places, if not always very convincing. With acting and direction above average, the problem here is the screenplay by Peter Morgan and Sean Bailey from a story by Ted Griffin, which has way more than its fair share of loose ends and confusing developments. Even, or especially, the ending is muddled and muffed.

Yet it remains entertaining and involving, and is not at all bad for this kind of thing. Yes, it’s hokum, and a tiny bit hammy, and more than a little contrived, but so what? It kind of works. It kept me aboard and alert all the way up till the climax. It keeps its mysteries unfolding bit by bit in engrossing classic fashion.

Colin Farrell makes a belated entrance, and doesn’t have much to do, but he is very efficient and professional, and works well with Hopkins. With a lot more to do, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Abbie Cornish are also brisk and capable.

There’s talent on show here, interest and intrigue, and even occasionally the odd touch of class. And, of course, Anthony Hopkins is always more than watchable, especially in a star role. It’s his show and no one is going to cramp his style.

It’s Brazilian director Poyart’s first Hollywood movie after his Brazilian debut with Two Rabbits (2012). He says: ‘The film has an influence of Se7en and The Silence of the Lambs, but tries to flee the genre. I do not think Solace is a serial killer movie, it is only its outer layer. In the background the film is much more than that, talking about life and death, and raises some interesting moral dilemmas.’

Principal photography began in the last week of May 2013 in Atlanta, Georgia.

The script originates from a re-written script at one point intended to be a sequel to Se7en.

The film had a lengthy and troubled production development. Fox 2000 Pictures acquired Sean Bailey and Ted Griffin’s script Solace back in February 1998. Later, New Line Cinema picked up the script to be rewritten as a sequel to the 1995 thriller Se7en, titled Ei8ht, with Morgan Freeman returning as Det William Somerset, who had developed psychic powers, but the idea was scrapped. Eventually, in September 2011, Anthony Hopkins was cast as the star, with final changes made to the screenplay by Peter Morgan, and in May 2012, Brazilian director Afonso Poyart was attached to direct.

Solace was screened at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, 2015, and was eventually released by Lionsgate Premiere on December 16, 2016, to some, but not all, negative reviews. The $22.4 million box office doesn’t sound too bad, either.

Running time: 101 minutes.

The cast are Anthony Hopkins as Dr John Clancy, Colin Farrell as Charles Ambrose, Jeffrey Dean Morgan as FBI Agent Joseph Joe Merriwether, Abbie Cornish as FBI Agent Katherine Cowles, Jordan Woods-Robinson as Jeffrey Oldfield, Marley Shelton as Laura Merriwether, Xander Berkeley as Mr. Ellis, Kenny Johnson as David Raymond, Janine Turner as Elizabeth Clancy, Sharon Lawrence as Mrs Ellis, Jose Pablo Cantillo as Sawyer, Matt Gerald as Sloman, Autumn Dial as Emma Clancy, Joshua Close as Linus Harp, Luisa Moraes as Victoria Raymond.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Movie Review

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com