Solo

Vietnam vet Jack Barrett (Colin Friels) has worked for Sydney’s underworld as a hitman for much of his adult life. Now, at 53, he’s tired of it and wants out. But getting out isn’t easy, especially when your boss Reno (Linal Haft), wants you to do “one last job” – to whack a young university student Billie Finn (Bojana Novakovic) who’s doing her M.A. thesis on the Wood Royal Commission on organised crime and is asking too many questions.

Debut feature film writer/director Morgan O'Neill’s script won the Project Greenlight prize of $1 million beating out 1200 other film-maker hopefuls.  It is clear from the result that, both as a writer and a director, he knows the gangster film very well.  But that’s the problem with Solo – it’s all too familiar and its main point of difference, the transposition of the form into the Aussie vernacular feels too strained to be convincing. David Caesar did it well and found his voice with Dirty Deeds (2002) as did Gregor Jordan with Two Hands (1999) but despite the fact that the film moves al a solid clip and is graced by a tip-top cast, unlike those films, it noticeably lacks its own raison d’être.

The attempt to introduce a fresh element in the form of a spunky female post-grad student not only doesn’t alter this but rather feels contrived, in part because Novakovic doesn’t have the chops to pull off what is admittedly a difficult role but also in part because O’Neill hasn’t integrated her character into the overall narrative well enough to convince.

Fortunately O’Neill has Colin Friels in the lead role. He’s no Lee Marvin but he’s good at playing hard men and his character, even if a genre cliché, is compelling, Strong too is Angie Milliken as Barrett’s sort-of girlfriend, Kate, an aging hooker with whom he has a “business” relationship that masks an unspoken deeper feeling for each other. Surrounding these three are a gaggle of familiar bad-egg types clearly sourced from O’Neill’s many hours on the couch watching gangster movies.

Abetted by quality cinematography from Hugh Miller and a cool nicely judged cool jazz soundtrack Solo is watchable but for the acting talent on display here most will want more than that.

 

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