‘Solace’ Trailer: Anthony Hopkins and Colin Farrell Play a Game of Psychic Cat and Mouse

The Solace trailer is in the unfortunate position of having to sell a movie whose real world backstory seems far more interesting than what’s actually on screen. Still, there’s something weirdly charming about this low-rent preview, which looks like it was dragged kicking and screaming from the ‘90s. And that’s appropriate enough since it was originally a sequel to one of the most acclaimed films of that decade.

Solace follows a psychic, semi-retired police officer as he hunts down a serial killer...who is also psychic and is apparently a big fan of his pursuer’s work. The characters are played by Anthony Hopkins and Colin Farrell, both of whom look like they have better things to do. Neither of them have fully descended into the dark and dreary world of direct-to-video stardom, but this looks like a perilous first step. Solace looks cheap and cheesy and rote and so on. It even has a moment where Hopkins fires a gun and we follow a badly rendered CGI bullet in exxtreme slow-motion. Insert that Robin Williams “What year is it?” meme right here.

However, it will certainly excel as a curiosity item. The script was initially penned as a sequel to David Fincher’s Se7en. The plan was that Morgan Freeman’s world weary Detective Somerset would inexplicably develop psychic abilities and get plucked out of retirement to hunt another serial killer. That never materialized for obvious reasons, but the basic concept endured. Now we have Solace, which looks like a bad movie on its own rather than a bad sequel to a great thriller.

Solace doesn’t have a release date just yet, but we imagine it will be available on VOD very, very soon after its theatrical run (if it gets one at all).