The Soloist
No one changes anything by playing it safe.
Journalist Steve Lopez (Robert Downey Jr.) discovers Nathaniel Anthony Ayers (Jamie Foxx), a former classical music prodigy, playing his cello on the streets of L.A. As Lopez endeavors to help the homeless man find his way back, a unique friendship is formed, one that transforms both their lives.
Member Reviews
Thoughtful Movie - CynCanada
If you are able to sort through the typical Hollywood BS - this movie does a decent job of portraying the difficulty of managing relationships with the mentally ill. The acting is very well-done and believable - which is especially important for a true story. This is a movie I definitely recommend for your Zip list.Top performers - LB21
The performances by both Robert Downey Jr and Jamie Foxx were stellar. At times I found the story to be a little too long and dark, but the performances renewed my faith in humanity. The friendship between these two men was not only believable but hearfelt.A Wonderful Film About Humanity - CharleyJames
Mental illness is hard to portray on film. Filmmakers tend to solve serious problems in a short time and go for a happy ending projected over soaring strings. Unfortunately, that approach seldom matches reality.
The Soloist, based on a book of the same name, is the real story of the friendship between LA newspaper writer Steve Lopez (Robert Downey Jr.) and Beethoven-loving Nathaniel Anthony Ayers (Jamie Foxx), a gifted musician and homeless paranoid schizophrenic. The movie avoids most of the pitfalls: Its epiphanies are small ones but with the gleam of truth.
The film goes wrong when it veers too far from the facts. The screenplay makes a lot of changes, some benign, some pointless and some destructive such as a fictional scene in which Ayers gets violent.
But the film gets the essential characters of the two men right.
Downey's Lopez is tightly focused on the story du jour until he finds himself really starting to care about Ayers. Foxx's Ayers riffs endlessly on random word choices like a man who's had a dictionary dumped into his brain, becoming most truly focused, and happiest, when he's playing or listening to music.
The scenes set in Skid Row, where Ayers bunks on the sidewalk, show a grim side of Los Angeles and humanity, far from the usual high glam, cinematic view of LA. It, and the tunnel where Ayers plays, contrast vividly with the gleaming Disney Hall, home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
The Soloist is about music — as performed and as heard inside Ayers' head — the nature of mental illness and of friendship. It's best when it demonstrates music's power and meaning, and explores the growing understanding and respect that come to bind Lopez and Ayers — not as writer and subject but as comrades and partners of sorts.
You'll still need to read the book. But The Soloist, thoughtful in its approach, should make its viewers think as well.
Member Reviews
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Thoughtful Movie - CynCanada
If you are able to sort through the typical Hollywood BS - this movie does a decent job of portraying the difficulty of managing relationships with the mentally ill. The acting is very well-done and believable - which is especially important for a true story. ...Top performers - LB21
The performances by both Robert Downey Jr and Jamie Foxx were stellar. At times I found the story to be a little too long and dark, but the performances renewed my faith in humanity. The friendship between these two men was not only believable but hearfelt.A Wonderful Film About Humanity - CharleyJames
Mental illness is hard to portray on film. Filmmakers tend to solve serious problems in a short time and go for a happy ending projected over soaring strings. Unfortunately, that approach seldom matches reality.
The Soloist, based on a book of the same ...