Now Showing: Solace

 

Solace

Genre: Dark Comedy/Thriller

Director: Michael Haneke

Writers: Chad Taylor & Jimmy Ellis 

A Hill Valley Entertainment Production

Cast: Isabelle Huppert, Adam Driver, Paul Mescal, Tim Roth, Olivia Colman

Plot: Snow falls from the clouds as we focus on a high-rise residential building. An early morning with no person in sight. We slowly begin rising the floors and yelling can be heard. The higher we go the louder the argument becomes. A woman yells at a man telling him that she needs his attention, he needs to stay with her, focus less on his job. This is his sixth trip out of town just this month. You can tell this is not the first time these two have argued about this. The man lashes back, telling her that this job is what keeps her here and all of these nice things all around her. The camera continues to rise, now on about the 30th floor. Suddenly a loud smash occurs as the man screams in anger, the woman screams in fear. We have reached the 33rd floor. The camera focuses on a couple from the outside of the building before slowly zooming in as the husband, Lewis Croft (Tim Roth), stands with his hands on his head. Murielle (Isabelle Huppert) sits in bed, with a single tear rolling down her cheek. Lewis breathes heavily before picking up his suitcase and leaving, saying he'll see her in a couple of days. Murielle stares out the window.

SOLACE

On Friday, Murielle goes about her lonely routine. At night, she attends dinner with a couple of her friends at a high-end restaurant. Their server is a quite dapper twentysomething who is laying on the charm in order to get a good tip. The friends make some small-talk and throw around light-hearted gossip about their personal lives. One woman asks about Lewis and then makes an offhand joke asking what number secretary he is on for the year. Murielle's mind is elsewhere. In her penthouse apartment, she is having aggressive sex on the couch with the young server from the restaurant. Back in the restaurant, she snaps out of it and responds to the friend's joke. When she returns to her home, she looks at herself in the mirror for an extended period. A look of curiosity rushes over her face. She pours a glass of wine and opens her phone. On there, she downloads an app that allows her to browse through male escorts.

Murielle lays on her bed, dressed in nothing but a robe. The elevator door dings, Murielle presses a button, and the door opens. A man dressed in a suit (Paul Mescal) with a bow tie exits the elevator doors. He immediately is amazed by the place. Murielle calls out to the man, Toby. Toby walks into the bedroom, Murielle is nowhere in sight. Toby calls out to her, no answer. The door then closes behind Toby and Murielle pushes him onto the bed. She then drops her robe. She jumps on top of him and begins kissing him, all the while unclothing him. The two then have rough sex throughout the apartment breaking a lamp or two.

The two of them lie on the floor of the bedroom, laughing. Murielle tells Toby to get her husband’s cigars from the wardrobe. Toby leaves to get the cigars. Lewis arrives home and yells at Murielle for taking his cigars. Toby returns with the cigars; it takes a moment for him to regain Murielle’s attention. Toby lights Murielle and his own cigar. He tells her that she must truly hate her husband for her to bring him to their home. Murielle laughs, saying that her husband is absent more than he is with her. In fact, he hasn’t been WITH HER for 5 years. Toby calls Lewis an idiot for not wanting to be with her. She smiles. He then asks why he needed the tuxedo if she was just going to rip it off him. She tells him that their neighbours are nosy. She needed it to look like a business deal. She proceeds in saying that Lewis is a high-profile artist, everyone in the building sees him as some type of God, but not her, she sees him as the evil man he is. She then leans over and kisses Toby more, and more. She asks him how much for him to stay the night and he says that they don't usually do that, but she says that she is willing to pay whatever.

In the middle of the night, dead silence is broken by Murielle's phone ringing. She groggily wakes up and sees that Lewis is calling. When she answers, he tells her that he has decided to cancel his trip and is on his way back home. His plane is landing now so it should be about an hour and a half until he arrives. She asks why and he says that he felt bad about where they left things. He tells her he loves her and hangs up. Murielle loudly sighs before turns to her side to wake up Toby. She nudges his shoulder and his eyes open, but he does not move. She continues to nudge him and says that she needs him to leave but he does not respond, instead staring blankly at the ceiling. She begins to panic and tries shaking him but it still does not work. She checks to see if he is breathing, and he is. His eyeballs are moving, and he can grunt, which lets her know that he is still alive. Lewis opens the door to the bedroom and, upon finding Toby in his bed, begins shouting obscenities at Murielle and grab his gun in the closet. In reality, Murielle tries helping Toby up but he is much larger than her in size.

She runs through some options of people who could help and decides against asking her neighbors or calling EMTs, fearful of the news that would leak if so. Likewise, one of her friends would be able to help in this situation. Her eyes search for an answer and they finally click when she sees a picture of her family from twenty years ago: her son Marcus. She soon realizes that she does not know her own son's number and he is not in her address book. She then begins listening to old voicemails until she gets to one from a few months back, with Marcus informing her that his daughter (her granddaughter) was starting pre-school and that he just thought she would like to know this milestone. Or not. She looks at herself in the mirror with a sense of shame and then spots Toby in the bed in the background. This pushes her to finally hit the call button. No answer. She takes a deep breath and calls again. Marcus answers and asks what is wrong - pointing out that is the middle of the night. She is holding back tears as she says that it is an emergency, and she asks if he can come over to help. He says he will get dressed and be right over.

Murielle goes back over to Toby, she begins speaking to him, telling him everything will be fine, her son is coming. Toby’s eyes stare in Murielle’s direction as he grunts. She strokes his head.

Having a key of his own, Marcus (Adam Driver) bursts through the elevator door. He calls out to his mother. Murielle walks out of the bedroom and toward Marcus, she goes to hug him, but he begins looking around instead, asking what the emergency is. She shows him the bedroom, broken lamps on the ground, clothes and sheets around the place. Marcus sees Toby on the bed, telling her that he won’t help with her affairs. She did it with his father, breaking his heart, and now Lewis too. Murielle apologises but says this time is different. She pleads for her son's help and tells him she knows she hasn’t been there for him, nor Milly. Marcus tells her that she doesn’t even know the name of her own granddaughter, it's Tilly. Marcus turns to leave but Murielle gets on her knees, begging her son for help. He’s all she has. Marcus grabs his mothers’ hands and lifts her up, he tells her that he will help, but after this, she is either a part of his family or not. Murielle looks her son in the eyes, nodding.

Murielle takes Marcus over to Toby. Toby’s eyes immediately dart over to Marcus, grunting. Marcus asks his mother what happened, she tells him that he just can’t move, nor speak, she has no idea what it is. Marcus grabs his phone and begins searching, before landing on sleep paralysis. Toby grunts before getting a look of fear in his eyes. We switch to Toby’s POV showing a dark figure pinning him down to the bed, hand over his mouth. Back to normal, Murielle asks how to fix him, Marcus tells Toby that he needs to focus on one small muscle, a finger perhaps. Toby’s eyes try to look at his own finger, but nothing happens. Murielle then lifts Toby’s finger for him, once more nothing happens. Murielle and Marcus look to each other and wonder what they can do next.

A bit later Marcus comes into scene with a bucket of water, he tips it over Toby, nothing is happening so Murielle tells him to stop, asking if he wants to waterboard the young man. Marcus apologises to Toby who just grunts back. Marcus says that he read that these episodes usually last no more than twenty minutes but she points out that they are past that point. She checks her watch and asks for his help in moving Toby out of the apartment, or at least some place more discrete. This takes Marcus back and he asks why she doesn't just call the paramedics. He then comes the realization that there is something here afoot. She is now in tears and explains that Lewis is on his way home and that she fears his reaction.

Marcus now grows angry and asks her where her humanity is. She has a helpless man in her apartment experiencing a medical event and she is worried about what her husband will think? Marcus picks up the phone and dials 9-1-1 but she begs him not to call. She says they have about 45 minutes until he arrives. She asks Marcus if he drove here and he nods. She suggests they carry him to Marcus's car and then Marcus can take him to the hospital while she cleans up for Lewis's arrival. Toby grunts in the background and they try to read his reaction to this plan but it is unclear. She says that they should take the stairs since no one takes the stairs so they will not be seen. This is where Marcus puts his foot down: if they're seen, they're seen but he is taking the elevator. Murielle retrieves a robe of Lewis's and they put it on Toby (despite being a size or two too small).

The two of them carry Toby to the elevator and press the button for the ground level. They put him on the ground and sit him against the wall. There is a tense silence as the elevator starts to descend. It is broken by Marcus's laughter of disbelief at this situation: his own mother won't talk to him for years and then she calls him for this. Murielle is too much in her own head as she worries about someone seeing them. The elevator dings and begins to stop on the 14th floor. Murielle panics and begins pressing the "close door" button but it is too late. Murielle turns to her son and asks "is this a dream?". Marcus is confused and shakes his head no. The doors open and a tired woman (Olivia Colman) stands in front of them with a cup of coffee in her hand. The woman is in her scrubs, about to go to her early morning shift at the hospital. As she enters she says hello to Murielle, Murielle reciprocates the hello, calling her Polly. Polly then looks down at Toby and a look of familiarity falls upon her face. Toby’s eyes dart to Murielle and Marcus as he grunts. Polly leans down and asks Toby how his mother is. Marcus laughs to himself saying this gets better. Murielle steps in saying that his name is in fact Jerome, he is a friend of Marcus’. Marcus gets a look of appall but plays along. He says that Jerome had too much to drink and they just need to get him home. Polly laughs it off telling them she has had one too many of those nights herself. She leans over to Jerome and tells him she hopes he feels better in the morning. She then eyes Marcus up and down and asks if he is Murielle's new fling. Marcus is quick to say that he is her son, to which Polly laughs at herself and apologizes as she did not know Murielle even had a son. Marcus laughs and jokingly says "surprise!" before giving a darting look to his mother. The elevator finally reaches the bottom floor. Marcus picks Toby up and the four of them walk out of the elevator. They walk the opposite direction of Polly but can hear the loudmouthed woman on the phone, she asks someone named Jean how Toby is going with his studies lately. Murielle and Marcus look to Toby and begin walking quicker.

They reach Marcus's car and place Toby in the backseat. In the moment, she feels guilty about leaving Toby behind so she will drive them and then Marcus can Uber back on the way home. On the drive to the hospital, Murielle thanks Marcus for his help tonight and apologizes for being an absent mother for a lot of his life. Marcus, increasingly tired and dumbfounded by the circumstances, tells her that he prefers not rehashing all of this now but that he accepts her apology. She begins saying that she looks forward to meeting Tilly before she is interrupted by her phone ringing. Marcus checks and it is Lewis. Murielle once again looks panicked but instructs Marcus to answer. He does and puts it on speaker. Lewis explains that his taxi is experiencing car troubles and they've had to stop but he's only ten or so minutes away so he was wondering if she could pick him up. She isn't sure what to say and looks to Marcus, who is almost in tears at this point in his disbelief. Amidst the silence, Lewis begins to say something but is interrupted by Toby loudly and repeatedly grunting in the background, trying to be heard. Murielle mouths to Marcus to shut him up, to which he throws up his hands so as to say "what can I do?". Lewis asks what that noise is and, instead of making up an excuse, Murielle asks for his location and says she can get him but says she'll be in a different car.

Smash cut to the car pulling up to Lewis. Marcus gets out of the car so to take a seat in the back next to Toby. Lewis smells strongly of alcohol and stares at Marcus's face for a good ten seconds before realizing it is Murielle's son. He says that he didn't expect to see him here and then asks how Milly is doing. Marcus puts on a fake smile and says she is doing great. They load up in the car and Lewis gives Murielle a kiss before seeing Toby in the backseat. Before he can even say anything, Murielle says that they need to make a quick stop for Marcus's friend Jerome. Lewis, clearly inebriated, shrugs his shoulders and turns up the radio, which is playing "Have A Holly Jolly Christmas". The camera sits on the four of them riding in the car as dawn is breaking and the credits begin to roll overtop of the long take. However, it is interrupted thirty seconds in by Toby loudly gasping for air and emerging from his paralyzed state. Marcus asks if he is feeling OK while Toby fidgets and looks at the rest of them with disgust as he tries to catch his breath. Lewis slowly turns around, smiles, and extends his hand. "Good morning, Jerome, I'm Lewis. Say, I've a robe just like that one!"