Director: Luke Armstrong
Writer: Luke Armstrong
Stars: Johnny Sachon, Lottie Tolhurst, Michael Condron
It’s not a bad idea for a film: a couple of characters wake up in a glorified shipping container orbiting around the planet, with no idea how they got there and even less idea how to get out (or back, to be more precise). In this case the characters are Isaac (Johnny Sachon, with a weird hairstyle) and Alana (Lottie Tolhurst, from the TV series Harlots), convicts who have been sentenced to transportation, i.e. to act as a pioneering force and colonise new worlds, given that Earth is over-populated, over-exploited and just basically knackered. But something has gone very wrong, the ship they were due to dock with has been destroyed, their oxygen levels are dwindling and, just to add to the fun, one of them (at least) might not be who they seem.
OK, so a good enough starting point, but Solitary doesn’t entirely fulfil its premise. Partly, this is due to the low budget, which doesn’t give it the scope to fulfil its considerable ambitions. But also, once it has the situation set up, it doesn’t really know what to do with it. A lot of the time, therefore, is spent with the characters bickering, fighting, and making stupid decisions, all fleshed out with poorly shot flashbacks which destroy any sense of claustrophobia that might otherwise have been generated. I really don’t want to be too scathing, because in some ways it’s a real achievement – the special effects, for instance, are good enough to be in a more prestigious production – but this only makes it even more disappointing, because it’s not flat-out terrible, like so many microbudget productions. But plaudits for the moments of wit (such as the fact that the communications they receive from mission control, as represented by a rather hopeless psychiatrist, count against their ten permitted phone calls) and Tolhurst in particular is very good. Debuting director Luke Armstrong has worked on digital FX for the likes of big budget TV series Lost in Space and The Witcher as well as popular films like Paddington 2 and Guardians of the Galaxy.
Rating: 4/10
