trailer break: ‘The Soloist’

Yeah, not November, like it says at the end of this trailer. This was supposed to be released last fall, and there’s a lot of wondering about why it wasn’t. And lemme tell ya, I saw the film last night, and... wow. The year-end awards stuff for 2008 would have looked a little different if this had been released in November. I don’t like making those kinds of predictions, about who’s gonna win awards and who ain’t, because all that rot has so little to do, often, with actual quality and import, but I think... maybe... we might be hearing more about this movie come fall 2009.

This trailer, though, does not do the movie justice. Oh, it’ll put butts in seats, will make people think they’re gonna see something that is warm and uplifting and happy and optimistic. And that’s so not what this movie is. Some of the feel-goodest dialogue here in the the trailer is simply not in the final movie.

I have to wonder why this kind of thing does not burn Hollywood after a while. Sure, you may get some short-term benefit to misleading audiences about what a film is about, but in the long run, you’d think it would hurt. I guess we have to blame audiences for not rebelling against misleading trailers...

The Soloist opens in the U.S. on April 24, and in the U.K. on September 11.