Editorial Review: Academy Award® nominee Robert Downey Jr. and Academy Award® winner Jamie Foxx star in an extraordinary and inspiring true story of how a chance meeting can change a life. The Soloist tells the poignant and ultimately soaring tale of a Los Angeles newspaper reporter who discovers a brilliant and distracted street musician, with unsinkable passion, and the unique friendship and bond that transforms both their lives. The remarkable performances make for an unforgettable experience in what is hailed as “a courageous and uncompromising film” (Gene Shalit, TODAY).
Description of The Soloist:
Sometimes people randomly cross paths, and forever will be changed. That's the subtle, yet profound, message of The Soloist, a deeply moving and deeply human film about people and what, and whom, they connect with. Robert Downey Jr., who is effortlessly charismatic, plays Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez, whose job it is to report on the character and characters, of Southern California. But even a (slightly) jaded reporter can be profoundly touched by a story he reports on, and then allows to unfold in real time. The subject of Lopez's column is Nathaniel Ayers (Jamie Foxx, also in a stellar turn), a homeless street musician whose lovely music--played on a battered two-string violin--Lopez hears one day on a walk not far from the Times office. Lopez learns Ayers once attended Juilliard before mental illness sent him into a spiral, and the column detailing Ayers' journey touches the community--as well as both men. The film (based on Lopez's book, follows the halting journey of their friendship, and how sometimes people's lives can't be fixed. Director Joe Wright (Atonement) cast real homeless Angelenos in the many street and social services scenes, giving the film an even more heart-wrenching and realistic patina. If the film doesn't always live up to its high aspirations (the trippy effects, which supposedly show what Ayers sees when he hears Beethoven, are straight out of a 1968 light show), it nonetheless has a big heart. And in an era in which newspapers are struggling to survive, it's heartening to see a contemporary story about a newspaper that can still affect change. --A.T. Hurley
Stills from The Soloist (Click for larger image)
The Soloist Reviews: Like playing a violin with 2 strings 2009-11-22 - "The Soloist" is a crude and inept adaptation of Steve Lopez's fine book of the same name. Looking for city stories to write about in his LA Times column, Lopez comes across Nathaniel Ayers, a former Juilliard student, now homeless, who plays beautiful classical music in an LA highway tunnel. The movie distorts Lopez's home life, making him a Downey-like loser, and moving wife and kids out of his life to simplify the plot. Ayers is a schizophrenic genius with little need for tutoring or practice. Just give him some meds, the movie seems to say, clean him up a little and plop him on stage, and all will be well. The reality (as captured in the book) is much more complex and difficult to achieve. There, Ayers was good, but very rusty and undisciplined and unreliable, making a stage comeback unlikely. In a rare but inconsistent nod to the book, the movie does not show him as a clear success.
Everything about the movie is amped up and turned up. The skid row scenes are snapshots from hell, with writhing, scamming, madmen filling very inch of the screen. In a rare bad performance, Jamie Foxx never manages to get inside Ayers's madness. He is every inch the talented, sane actor mouthing intricately scripted lines, Ayers's mad associations are lost in his rapid-ire delivery. The film confuses the viewer by inserting psychedelic, impressionistic scenes, as when a fire seems to burn outside Ayers's childhood home, that are hard to tell from the straight scenes that surround them.
It's has become a cliché to say that "the book was better than the movie" made from it. But with "The Soloist," the exaggerations of a bad-enough street life, the tampering with Lopez's family, the inability to wrestle with or even to present questions of how best to help the mentally ill, and Foxx's and Downey's surfacey treatment or their roles make "The Soloist" a must-miss movie.
A message in search of a story... 2009-11-18 - Given the strength of the story and the talent of the actors, The Soloist should have been a great film. But instead of a moving tale, all we got were slick visuals, nice production values and a message: Homeless people have it rough. They do, but where the movie failed was in making us care.
The relationships between the characters were so undeveloped that you couldn't get close to any of them, and the little that was shown of the homeless was too fragmented to drawn you in. Moreover, there was nothing in Lopez' character to indicate that he cared about the homeless--no motivation, no sense of self-sacrifice. Even when he is confronted with the realities of life on the streets, it doesn't seem to register in any profound way. When Lopez, in a fit of frustration, says "I quit!" what is he quitting at? The friendship between Ayers and Lopez was especially unconvincing. One minute Lopez seems to be using Ayers to further his own career, the next he is weeping. If there was supposed to be some kind of epiphany that changed Lopez, the writer missed it.
The writer also seems to have confused schizophrenia with synaesthesia. Hearing voices is a common feature of schizophrenia, but seeing sounds isn't. (The scene in which Ayers "sees" a Beethoven symphony was lifted straight out of Fantasia--although it wasn't as good). Nor was Ayers believable as a musician. There was nothing in his cello playing to indicate that he had ever had any talent--no vibrato, no dynamics, no real feel for the music. Even in the flashbacks to the young Ayers, his playing was dull, mechanical and completely lacking in musicality. And how did Ayers manage to skip Bach as a student? (There isn't a classical musician on the planet who does not know Bach backwards and forwards.) Ayers in real life may have been a Julliard student, but whoever dubbed for Jamie Foxx certainly wasn't.
I'm glad the movie didn't end on a "they lived happily ever after" note, with Ayers giving solo recitals and doing just fine on meds. That would have been a real stretch, but it was just as unrealistic to believe that Lopez and his wife got back together. (Why? How?) Their (happy?) reunion was just as flat and unconvincing as the rest of the film. Two stars for Foxx--none for the rest.
with message 2009-10-25 - Film with some kind of message interests me a lot. The soloist is that kind of film with friendship and tenderness of a newspaper writer that never could imagine how much involved he will be with the excellent violinist that
make on him like a God.
The scenes from Los Angeles homeless are very real and very sad. Never could imagine that L.A. was the most homeless city in USA. What a pity and what could be do for them...............
Nothing Special. 2009-10-25 - This is not a bad movie. Both Jamie and Robert work pretty well with the script they were given. However, there is really nothing special about it either. The movie tries to be a tear jerker but it's hard to go there because its Jamie Foxx. I think Jamie is at that point in his career where he feels he can do anything. He should have passed on this because the script is not strong enough. The dialogue between the characters is very boring at times. And they never actually tell you what's wrong with Jamie Fox character. Is he skitso or does he have another mental illness? This movie seems more like a made for tv movie. They should have passed this one right to the Lifetime Movie Network and called it a day.
Just OK 2009-10-14 - Not as good as I had expected being that both Robert Downey Jr and Jamie Foxx were the primary actors in this movie. Jamie Foxx wasn't very believable in his role. Robert Downey Jr. did a fine job in his role but the movie just wasn't all that great in my opinion. This is the type of movie you would only watch once and not want to see again. Once is enough for this one.
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