SOLO (2024) - Mark Reviews Movies

Solo, Music Box Films

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Review by Mark Dujsik | May 23, 2024

Abuse isn't always physical, and it's sometimes unrecognized by the victim. That's part of the story of Solo, which follows Simon (Théodore Pellerin), a makeup artist by day and a drag performer by night, across two distinct relationships that share one thing in common. From the outside, they look like love, and in the character's mind, they are love. In reality, those two bonds are about as far from love as such connections can be.

Writer/director Sophie Dupuis attempts to connect these two relationships on a fundamental level. One is between Simon and his mother Claire (Anne-Marie Cadieux), a world-famous opera singer who has been out of her children's lives for more than a decade while pursuing her career. The other revolves around Olivier (Félix Maritaud), a newbie at the club where Simon is a regular performer, and if this young man has learned what love is supposed to be from his absent mother, it's little wonder he clings to this romance, no matter how many warning signs and how much manipulation there may be on the other side of it.

That's pretty much the extent of the insight in Dupuis' screenplay, and while that's significant about understanding Simon and considered in the way the filmmaker depicts it, the movie ultimately becomes a one-note character study. It's also a bit too glossy and occasionally melodramatic for the level of pain and trauma that's being depicted here.

On the other hand, it is convincing, thanks to its portrayal of the unity and drama behind-the-scenes at the club, as well as the main performances, which are subdued in the way they present these troubled and troubling relationships. Pellerin in particular is sympathetic as the protagonist, a character who shows such poise and confidence on stage but exists as a quiet open wound of emotional turmoil, constantly being picked at by others because he knows no other way to be loved.

The story is simple. Simon is instantly taken with Olivier upon seeing him perform in drag and meeting him at the after-party for the performers. The two talk and flirt, and soon enough, one night at Simon's apartment becomes a regular thing. Olivier seems kind and sincere, telling Simon that he loves him after spending time with him at the club, at their respective apartments, and even at a family brunch Simon's family has. There's a kind of naïve sweetness to how Simon responds, plainly asking Olivier if he wants to go out with him in the way a middle- or high-schooler might.

The other relationship re-emerges at that brunch, when Simon's father (played by Roger Léger) tells him and his sister that their mother has returned to Montreal from her long stay in Europe and wants to meet her two children for dinner. Simon is thrilled at the prospect of seeing his mother again, but Maude (Alice Moreault), the sister and a costume designer who makes some of her brother's outfits, wants nothing to do with the woman who's basically a stranger to the family now. She makes several good points, such as why Claire didn't contact her children directly, but Simon will hear nothing of them.

These two relationship—with Olivier and the mother—unfold about as one would expect, knowing how desperate Simon is for affection and how he'll ignore obvious red flags for even a hint of that feeling. Olivier's affections, so strong and seemingly genuine initially, begin to drift, as he leaves Simon at the club's parties and alone at home to have sex with another performer or go out looking for one-night stands.

When Simon confronts him on the matter after the first time, Olivier blames him for not understanding, for assuming that the sex somehow interferes with his love for Simon, and for being so "simple-minded" about all of it. Every time the conversation arises, there's a fight, started by Olivier, and Simon goes right back to his straying partner, because the alternative would be to lose him.

It's a pretty clear-cut case of gaslighting on Olivier's part. It doesn't help that Simon's professional life is entwined with Olivier, since they've started a double act that's more popular than anything he has done on his own.

Adding to Simon's pain, Claire keeps arranging meetings with Simon, only to blow them off or end them suddenly because of a prior commitment. We understand the emotional logic of this setup, particularly in the way Simon's need for his mother's attention comes to define the way he clings to Olivier. In addition to making that point over and over, though, there's something off about the movie's other through lines—the depiction of the joy of the performances, the close-knit community of the club, the obviously loving relationships Simon has with the rest of his family—in relation to the bubble suggested by these toxic relationships.

The juxtaposition of these disparate ideas and tones keeps Simon's experience at an emotional distance. The notion of these relationships is convincing enough, but Solo suffers in depicting them, especially as tensions escalate—between the lovers, with the mother, backstage at the club—toward a climactic breakdown and in comparison to the energy of the movie's multiple performance scenes. The movie is of two distinct minds and approaches, and the combination of them ultimately doesn't quite do justice to the main character or his pain.

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