An Anthony Hopkins Serial Killer Flop Is Getting A Second Chance On Streaming
The 2015 Anthony Hopkins thriller Solace is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
Anthony Hopkins has been one of the most consistent acting talents in modern film history, delivering dramatic performances in acclaimed movies like The Father and The Silence of the Lambs. Wanting to tread into serial killer fare yet again, Hopkins starred in the 2015 thriller Solace which did not perform well at the box office. Solace is currently available to stream on Amazon Prime Video, and according to FlixPatrol, the film is now the number ten most streamed movie on the subscription streaming platform.
Directed by Brazilian filmmaker Afonso Poyart in his only English-language project, Solace stars Anthony Hopkins as psychic doctor John Clancy who assists the FBI in their search for infamous serial killer Charles Ambrose, played by Colin Farrell. The movie’s cast includes Grey’s Anatomy alum Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Australian actor Abbie Cornish, Scream star Marley Shelton, NYPD Blue’s Sharon Lawrence, and The Walking Dead performer Jordan Woods-Robinson. The film was written by Ted Griffin of Ocean’s Eleven fame, as well as Sean Bailey who is the current president of Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Production.
Solace debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2015 but was not released theatrically to the general public until December 2016 due to several behind-the-scenes issues. Originally scheduled for an earlier release by distributor Relativity Media, distribution rights to the film changed hands several times and the movie was eventually acquired by Lionsgate Premiere after Relativity Media encountered financial trouble. The Anthony Hopkins film survived Chapter 11 bankruptcy problems before its release, and went on to gross $22.4 million at the box office before becoming available to own on DVD, and then landed on streaming platforms shortly thereafter.
Critics and audiences alike have not been kind in their reviews of Solace. As one of the poorly-received movies of Anthony Hopkins’ career to date, Rotten Tomatoes currently ranks Solace with a 24% on its Tomatometer based on 50 critics’ reviews, as well as an Audience Score of 44% from over 5,000 ratings from verified users to the site. Similarly, Metacritic reflects a Metascore of 36 based on 12 critics’ reviews, in addition to a User Score of 5.9 from 36 user ratings.
Before Anthony Hopkins got ahold of the screenplay for Solace, the original idea for the movie was for it to be a sequel to the popular 1995 thriller Se7en that starred Brad Pitt, and Morgan Freeman. The concept for the sequel was eventually put to bed and a new script was written that made Solace a standalone. After a very limited release in theaters in 2016, moviegoers seem to now be flocking to watch the mystery thriller on Amazon Prime Video.
