10s Movie Review - Solace

Director: Afonso Poyart
Genre: Crime/ Drama/ Thriller
Runtime: 101 minutes
Year: 2015
Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Abbie Cornish, Colin Farrell, Marley Shelton, Kenny Johnson

Description: Psychic John Clancy (Anthony Hopkins) works with the F.B.I. in order to hunt down a serial killer.

Review: John Clancy is a retired psychic crime analyst. When FBI agent Joe Merriweather and his partner Katherine Cowles are confronted with a series of bizarre murders, Clancy is called in to help solve the case and find a serial killer.
Director Afonso Poyart choose not ta make his thriller a lingering whodunnit and pocuses on the psychological side of events. The tension lies in slowly revealing the killer’s exact motivations. For why is he killing seemingly random people, including a child? And, more importantly for the tension, how do you catch someone who already sees everything coming?
Unfortunately, the director delivers the not-very-original story like a double episode od a mediocre crime series. Clancy’s prophetic vision looks like they were ripped together from music videos and 90s thrillers. Full of shots of angelic girls with hair blowing in the wins and snarling wolves. Not only does the film look dated aesthetically; the biggest annoyance is the very mediocre and old-fashioned action, with the low point being a messy and dully portrayed car chase. With that, the camera work is really bad and it really bugs you at times.
Anthony Hopkins is not to blame, he is strong and his chemistry with Colin Farrell is very nice. Unfortunately their acting skills are embedded in a collection of dull conventions and contrived situations. For example, Joe is called away for a phone call as many as three times in the film, so Clancy and the skeptical Cowles are scooped up with each other. In doing so, the makes probably hoped to recall the masterful scenes between Hopkins and Jody Foster in “The Silence of the Lambs”. Without success.

Rating: 2/ 5