The Soloist (2009)

8/10

MalcolmJTaylor28 April 2009

After catching snippets of the lackluster reviews (two-stars in the Globe and Mail) I was dis-heartened. It's been a few months since I'd been moved by the trailer. However, the film never came out. I thought it might have been shelved.

I was glad to see it was indeed playing. In spite of the reviews, I persevered on the strength of the trailer. It seemed to me there was too much talent and pedigree involved for it to actually suck. And you know what? it's a terrific film with a poignant story. Perhaps lower expectations propped up my perceptions of it, however, it still stands as time well spent.

The film is based on a true story involving a top columnist at the LA Times, Steve Lopez, played with grace by Robert Downey Jr., who becomes invested in one of his more colourful subjects, Nathaniel Ayers, an accomplished musician overcome by mental illness, now living on the streets of LA portrayed by Jamie Foxx, who rambles his way to a convincing performance.

The film is a satisfying adult drama that doesn't lose it's direction. It doesn't pander to it's audience. There is no random violence, no guns, but indeed simply good story telling with great characterizations. It's a decent film that deserves better treatment in the press. It has a noble heart that succeeds in telling a great human story.

It resonates and strikes a chord.

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7/10

A True Story About Urban Homelessness

Lechuguilla24 April 2009

What makes this film watchable is that it is based on a true story. A caring Los Angeles reporter named Steve Lopez (Robert Downey, Jr.) tries to help a homeless man named Nathaniel Anthony Ayers (Jamie Foxx).

Ayers suffers from paranoid schizophrenia. But he once attended Julliard, and he still lives and breathes the music of Beethoven. Ayers, with his shopping cart of possessions, walks the streets, playing his violin amid the noise of the freeway. He's content, in his own world.

That unusual behavior grabs the attention of Lopez, no doubt as a human interest story for his own column. But as Lopez gradually becomes more genuinely concerned about Ayers, their relationship encounters frustration, anger, and emotional pain.

It's a poignant, gritty story, full of realism. The film manages to be compassionate without being patronizing. The film does a terrific job in portraying the harsh, depressing reality of the boarders who live at a large shelter where Ayers goes, at the insistence of Lopez.

Technical elements of the film are good. The visuals are thematically impressive. Production design and costumes are detailed and realistic. Acting is credible. Robert Downey, Jr. gives a fine performance.

The main problem is the plot. Too much time is spent on Lopez and his trivialities. Somehow, the compelling Ayers story morphs into a weighty examination of Lopez and his distress in dealing with Ayers. The script is to blame here. I think if the main character had been Ayers, instead of Lopez, the film could have been quite inspiring.

Even so, the film clearly calls attention to the plight of the urban homeless. As such, the film deserves viewer support.

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8/10

Wright, Downey and Foxx are good enough artists to lift this above its Oscar bait plot

zetes26 April 2009

This film was supposed to be a major competitor for the Oscars last year, but Paramount bumped it to a few months later. Despite the mixed reviews the film has received, I believe it would have been a major contender. I honestly think Paramount's decision not only ruined its chances for Oscars, it gave the impression that there was something wrong with the picture. There isn't, really. The subject matter does scream "Oscar Bait", with Robert Downey Jr. playing a newspaper columnist who writes about a schizophrenic genius musician (Jamie Foxx) who is homeless on the streets of L.A. We all remember Shine. Shine was pretty good (if entirely made up, as we later discovered). The Soloist is probably a little better. I think it's stronger because of its exploration of the relationship between the two central characters. Both Downey and Foxx are extremely good; both are award-worthy. This material could easily have been cheesy Oscar bait, but director Joe Wright (Pride and Prejudice and Atonement) is a virtuoso himself. The way he uses image and sound move the story along beautifully, not allowing the clichés to clog up the film.

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6/10

Going solo

TheLittleSongbird8 February 2018

With an interesting subject matter, two talented actors starring, Beethoven (one of my favourite composers) featuring heavily in the soundtrack and an impressive trailer, 'The Soloist' had enough to make me want to see it.

Joe Wright is somewhat hit and miss for me. 'Atonement' and 'Hanna' especially of his films are great, also liked 'Pride and Prejudice' and 'Darkest Hour'. 'Anna Karenina' didn't do it for me though and 'Pan' was a big misfire. 'The Soloist's' mixed reception admittedly created some uncertainty on my part, but the interest points mentioned in the first paragraph were enough to check it out anyway. Seeing it, 'The Soloist' is somewhere in the middle of Wright's films in ranking.

Not one of his best, not one of his worst either. Better than reputed, but considering the potential a better film was in there somewhere that didn't quite materialise.

'The Soloist's' biggest strength is the two leads. Robert Downey Jnr. especially is riveting in a performance full of vigour and heart. Jamie Foxx had the more challenging role, and while not as subtle as Downey his acting is incredibly emotionally committed and touching. Catherine Keener also fares well.

It's a good looking film too, polished, gritty and elegant. The music is magnificent as one would hope. 'The Soloist' does have its fair share of powerful, poignant and uplifting moments, the chemistry between the two leads strikes all the right notes and the scenes and portrayal of the homeless have a lot of power. The portrayal of schizophrenia, a very complex condition that has been prone to a lot of misconceptions and misinterpretations, is not too inaccurate.

However, Wright's direction is fairly unimaginative and sometimes chaotic. While there is nothing amateurish about his images (apart from some over-eager/clever editing) not all of them serve much of a purpose. The script does tend to ramble, even in Foxx's dialogue which is at times slightly annoying, and be too ham-fisted.

Similarly, the story is somewhat too thin and tries to cover too many themes and ideas without exploring some of them enough. Consequently, some of the film gets unfocused and over-crowded with a tendency to get melodramatic and be erratically paced. The rest of the acting barely registers, which is a shame because the two leads are so good.

Overall, not a bad film but could have been more. 6/10 Bethany Cox

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Interesting to know

benjybass26 April 2009

I am a musician and live in France, where the release date of this movie is scheduled for Sept. 2 2009. I obviously cannot write a review at the present time but have nevertheless read the book.

What no one mentions in all of the above comments is that Nathaniel Ayers was originally a Double Bass student at Julliard and NOT a cellist. That instrument-- along with the violin, trumpet, and piano, all came about later on. Put any instrument into his hands and he'll do his best to master it.

Having attended Yale university, I did not know him personally, even though we studied with one of the greatest bass teachers in the New York area at that time: Homer Mensch. Recently our paths did finally cross thanks to one of our mutual acquaintances, bassist and composer Joe Russo. Nathan likes to write down the names of his long lost good friends on walls, or any writing surface, and Joe's name is always there, scribbled amongst his favorites. This was where Steve noticed Joe's name and Googled him to look up his website. A new and close friendship resulted between them, and the many anecdotes that Joe pulled out of Nathan's past were worth their weight in gold to Steve, enough to devote the entire chapter 8 of the book to Joe!

To me, reading this book made me come to the conclusion that every man has his hour in life, and Nathan's time had come now. The chances of 2 men, one homeless and one not, being pulled together through the sound of a violin in a rush hour tunnel, were undoubtedly written in the stars. Through articles, a book and now a film on Nathan, Steve helped uplift a poor and abandoned part of society to a rank that it never imagined nor asked for, but morally deserved. We all know that the Internet is indeed capable of connecting and reconnecting people in the present, but only music can magically, throughout time, open the doors that connect all of us to one another.

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7/10

Good but not great

grantss9 December 2017

Steve Lopez is a journalist for the LA Times. He is on the lookout for new story ideas when he stumbles across Nathaniel Ayers, a homeless man with extraordinary musical talents. Lopez is eager to improve Ayers's situation, while writing a story on him, but the biggest problem may be Ayers himself.

Good but not great. Emotional journey, but somehow something is lacking. I just didn't feel as engaged as I normally would for a story like this. Maybe it was that it seemed to drift in the middle section or that it ultimately didn't have a point, or, at least, it's point was wasn't strongly put.

Can't fault the acting - Robert Downey Jr, Jamie Foxx and Catherine Keener are excellent.

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7/10

Truncated Arc.

rmax30482323 April 2010

Warning: Spoilers

It's a pretty neat title, "The Soloist." Jamie Foxx is a homeless schizophrenic on the streets of Los Angeles who happens to be (or once have been) a brilliant musician. Now, a mentally ill bum, he plays a violin with only two strings on the sidewalk -- an instrumental soloist. And schizophrenics don't form any social bonds to speak of. They live in what some psychiatrists have called "the schizophrenic no society." They're social soloists too.

A few years ago there appeared a movie about a young woman who is a dance instructor and finds a terpsichorean genius on the street. It turned out he could do MTV riffs and the moonwalk like nobody's business and this was celebrated as a talent that led to his apotheosis on television. I was afraid this would run along the same dismal gutter.

Nope. It's derived from Steve Lopez's (Robert Downey Jr.'s) no-doubt slightly polished book about his discovery of Nathanial Ayers, the challenges the two of them face, and their finally settling into a life style that is satisfactory in the way that most human adaptations are -- incomplete but (shrug) okay.

The movie ends with a scene of four people sitting in an auditorium listening to music -- Foxx and his sister (Lisagay Hamilton), and Downey and his friend and colleague (Catherine Keener). Foxx's eyes glow with pleasure but he's still psychotic and he's dressed something like Apollo Creed before the championship bout in "Rocky." In reality, there may have been scenes like that but I doubt they were common. A widely-read columnist at the LA Times is unlikely to spend much time with a schizophrenic who lives in a shelter. Not because of any prejudice but simply because of the absence of many shared interests.

The film presents itself as the story of Downey, mostly, who first sees Foxx as not much more than an interesting column in his paper. After all, the guy was a student at the Julliard School of Music, which wouldn't look bad on anybody's resume. I mean, Miles Davis went there too. Downey tries to promote some healthier adaptive styles in Foxx. He gets him a cello, for instance, and tries to install him in an apartment. Foxx considers Downey his "God" but then rebels and throws Downey around bodily. Then they shake hands and go to the concert. An epilogue tells us that Foxx's character still lives in the shelter but now plays many different instruments. You don't just shake off schizophrenia as if it were a bout of influenza.

The performances are decent. Downey isn't shown as especially tender-minded towards Foxx. He's matter-of-fact, sometimes comic, sometimes fed up. Foxx does what he can with the role and it's not bad as written. Foxx has features that are brutal but hint at the sensitivity beneath, or the other way round. Keener has a face that seems made for the camera. If her cheeks were any higher they'd be eyebrows. And her throaty giggle is coarse and compelling. Nelsan Ellis plays the young supervisor at LAMP, the homeless shelter, but he paints an extremely satisfying portrait of a man who is resigned, practical, and understanding. He's not written or played as some kind of saint of the streets either. That's one of the nice things about the film. Nobody's perfect. The supervisor disagrees with Downey's desire to get Foxx doped up. "We can't COHERSE him into taking drugs," he says mildly, getting the verb wrong. It's obviously a word he learned from pamphlets about the responsibilities of the job. The guy is perceptive but he's not an educated or articulate man.

Above all, there is Beethoven's semi-divine music, and there's nothing pompous about the way it's presented. In one scene, his first chance at playing a cello in many years, Foxx's eyes close dreamily as he saws slowly away at the piece, all by himself, the rough notes apparently spelling out no melody. Then we hear the full orchestra inside Foxx's head as it gradually swells and Foxx's solitary strings melt into the more general. There's a visual trick to show us what Foxx sees when he hears music, and it looks like what might show up on your monitor if you use Windows Media Player with a CD.

Not that you're pounded over the head with the music. If you want to hear snatches of the life-affirming chorus from Beethoven's ninth symphony, you'll have to listen to tooth paste commercials on TV. The selections we hear are subdued and thoughtful. There are also pop songs and "May the Circle Be Unbroken." All in all, if you're patient, if your mind is open, if you're not expecting a lot of fireworks from either the story or the director's way of showing it, this ought to slowly gather you in.

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7/10

Deception

kosmasp13 June 2010

The trailer might give you the impression that you are going to watch just another drama. But luckily it ain't so. This movie is gritty and does not deliver any easy answers. It has some pretty gross scenes (though they seem in tune with the situation the city is going through and depict therefor a very real situation), but all that is shown is in tune with the rest of the movie.

Robert Downey again delivers. And to think that he almost completely went off the (acting/movie) radar ... Luckily he didn't and luckily for us, Jon Favreau got him back to the big game with Iron Man. A movie which allows him, to go do movies like the Solist and earn them some PR. With Jamie Foxx he creates a relationship that feels more than real (considering their characters and their "flaws"). Watch this, but don't expect anything "Hollywood" about it

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9/10

Thoughts To Prepare You for Watching the Film.

Tom Murray16 June 2009

Since Ingmar Bergman's 1962 film, "Through a Glass, Darkly", the 2009 film "The Soloist" is one of the two most accurate portrayals of schizophrenia, from the point of view of the mentally ill person and of people who want to interact with the ill person. I speak from experience. David Cronenberg's film, "Spider", is the other.

I was disappointed in my two favourite critics, James Berardinelli and Roger Ebert, each of who gave "The Soloist" only 62½%.

Berardinelli says, "The Soloist is afflicted with a lack of passion. The story lacks a strong trajectory; it meanders, seemingly unsure of precisely what it wants to do and say and where it wants to go." Actually, that is the reality of schizophrenia. One never knows what is going to happen next. There are many setbacks. He also says, "The soundtrack supplies multiple, overlapping voices. The objective is to invite the viewer to participate in the unhinging of Nathaniel's mind, a first-person perspective of schizophrenia. Unfortunately, it feels artificial and contrived." I have taught seven NAMI* courses on mental illness. One episode in one of the classes involves requiring class members to perform certain simple tasks while being bombarded by random voices from behind. Many class members find that to be the most unnerving, and illuminating, of all the activities in the course.

Ebert misses the point when he says, "Yes, mental illness can be like that, but can successful drama? There comes a point when Lopez has had enough, and so, in sympathy, have we." Dealing with a mentally ill person can be devastatingly frustrating. Must we always be entertained? There is a place for grim reality in drama. Otherwise, how can we learn?

"The Soloist" is as accurate a representation of schizophrenia as you could experience without becoming mentally ill yourself. If you keep that in mind then the film will be rewarding; if, however, you are looking for a film that makes sense easily and progresses from point to point in a logical manner, then look for a different film.

If you choose to watch the film and absorb the reality of mental illness, then you will learn much. You never know when that knowledge will be of great value to you. Then again, you may be spared, and never need it.

The film introduces a very important idea: mentally ill people do better if there is someone, whom they trust, who takes an abiding interest in them.

It also poses one very important question: should mentally ill persons be forced to take medication to stabilize themselves? Different states, provinces and countries have different laws concerning this. Some feel that mentally ill persons should be forced to take medication if and only if they are likely to harm themselves or others. Mentally ill persons are often unaware that they are mentally ill, and cannot be convinced otherwise. Would they have more freedom to decide correctly for themselves if they were first medicated until they become sane? The film addresses this question but does not attempt to give a definitive answer. You will have to think out that question yourself, keeping in mind that different people have different reactions to the same medication. There is no universal answer, but for each individual, there is probably a best answer but not necessarily a good one.

The film captivated me from the beginning to the end. I did not miss the common devices that some movies use to make them exciting. There was excitement enough for me in the growth of the principal characters and in the learning that I did, and in the thinking that I was forced to do.

*NAMI is The National Alliance on Mental Illness.

P.S. Schizophrenia has absolutely nothing to do with having multiple personalities, or of dichotomies (apparent contradictions). The split in the expression "split personality" is the split between the personality and reality. Unfortunately, the word is misused far more often that it is used correctly.

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6/10

The Other Side of the American Dream

claudio_carvalho1 April 2010

In Los Angeles, the reporter of the LA Times Steve Lopez (Robert Downey Jr.) writes the successful column Points West. After an accident with his bicycle, Steve wanders on the streets and hears a classic music being played by a homeless violinist with an out of commission violin. Steve starts a conversation with the musician fan of Beethoven Nathaniel Anthony Ayers Jr. (Jamie Foxx) and when the man tells him that he had studied cello in Juilliard, Steve researches his life and writes a series of articles in his column about the talented but mentally ill musician. He befriends the schizophrenic Nathaniel and brings him to the Lamp Community in Los Angeles. The work of Steve Lopez is awarded and he attempts to help the musician, but in his insanity, Nathaniel does not want to change his lifestyle.

"The Soloist" is apparently based on a true story of a relationship of a journalist and a schizophrenic musician and discloses the other side of the American Dream in Los Angeles with 90,000 homeless people. In this regard, this film uses a different approach of Wim Wenders' "Land of Plenty" to slightly show the reality of homeless people in Los Angeles. The problem is that apparently the columnist wrote articles and was awarded, and wrote a book that became a movie, probably making lots of money, while Nathaniel Ayers Jr. is still on the streets and sleeping in a shelter. Please excuse me if I am unfair, but the film does not show a great effort from Steve Lopez to hire a psychologist to help Nathaniel to improve his life. Further, the screenplay is cold despite the choice of two excellent actors in the lead roles. The music score with Beethoven and Bach is a plus in this deceptive film. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "O Solista" ("The Soloist")

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3/10

Such high hopes have diminished into sheer disappointment.

JungleBunnyBastard26 April 2009

Made watchable through it's rich performances (especially Robert Downey Jr.) and it's beautiful music, but the film feels like it's trying to hard to cover too much ground while at the same time beating you over the head with humanitarian elements that really have no place or room.

A friendship is formed between a divorced writer and a homeless, schizophrenic musician when they have a chance meeting. What could have been a great story about friendship went heavy handed and up it's own ass in little messages that by the end of the film I, in a way, felt cheated. I felt like they were teasing me with a good story and actors but instead decided to give me pointless intersections throughout (don't even get me started on Nathaniel Ayers' "flashbacks" and "thoughts").

The film would have been better if they had concentrated on the point of view of Robert Downey, Jr.'s character and not try to dive into Ayers' psyche. That made it seem hokey and with the addition of what Downey's character said near the end made it that much more insulting. There was just so much stuff the filmmakers tried to cover and didn't elaborate very much on.

The performances, though, were brilliant. Foxx gets a little over-the-top with his ability to scene-chew, but Downey gives a down to earth, realistic performance. Even though they were all really good, I just kept feeling like Foxx was just trying to out-act Downey. With that said, he was still wonderful.

I don't know. Maybe I'm reading too much into it and maybe I'm just ragging on it because I didn't like it, but, oh well. I am a critic, right?

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7/10

Master cast. Admirable characters, True story, real characters, so lots of acting courage, but not so much inspirational...

bopdog25 April 2009

Warning: Spoilers

MAJOR SPOILERS!!! Is the writing spot-on? Yes. Is the acting performed by very likable masters of the art, and with great skill? Yes. Is the story worth telling? Probably. Is this one of those uplifting and light filled movies of redemption? Erm... not so much. It is based on a true story, and life isn't always so pretty. This movie is NOT pretty! The trailers implied there would be beautiful music, and the beauty of the music and the very act of learning (once again) to re-create it would save a soul. Again, not so much. Nathaniel Ayres Jr. is/was a genuinely crazy man. Not cute. His personality and demeanour, on the surface, anyway, are marbled with profound humility and heartbreaking misfortune. One hopes, and because it's a movie, expects, him to be lifted out of it.

Again, the trailer has a voice-over of Steve Lopez, played with superb honesty and courage (because he is, alas, no miracle worker. He is only human, like the rest of us) has been greatly edited. His words about friendship, and the real-person/character of Ayres, end with something about "This friendship, in the end, takes you home." In the actual movie, you hear the whole paragraph, and it is, again, more ordinary, more human.

Are the people in this movie admirable? Yes. Inspirational? Not so much.

Acting praise must go to Katherine Keener, Jamie Foxx, and Downey Jr. God, they are good.

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5/10

An Unremarkable Story

christopher-7712 August 2009

I can't give this a low, low score because it is a technically proficient movie - good camera, good lighting, and realistic environments and dialog.

Unfortunately, the script was utterly boring.

It's clear the writer and director were trying to make a connection with the audience, and cause them to well up with tears for our poor, afflicted main character (Jaime Foxx). But, when the cresendo came and the climax passed, I was just playing mental gymnastics wondering "When will I start caring?" It's yet another example of a great movie affected by an un-remarkable and un-moving script. Too bad, I really wanted to like this one...

Take care, ... Christopher

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Lacked development....

imdbbl9 September 2009

Steve Lopez is a Los Angeles Times columnist in need of a decent story.One day he encounters,by chance, Nathaniel Ayers, a homeless schizophrenic street musician with an abundance of talent.Lopez writes a series of articles about Nathaniel and tries to help him, to improve his conditions of living and gives him a chance to showcase his talent however Nathaniel's disease has created demons that he can't ignore and Lopez sees most of his efforts frustrated...To be honest I was expecting a way better movie, I saw the trailer months ago and it got me excited, the movie seemed to have all the ingredients to be a success,plus two amazing actors, Robert Downey Jr as Lopez and Jammie Foxx as Nathaniel.However, I felt disappointed.Lopez struggle to reach to Nathaniel and his constant efforts to help him were interesting to watch but that is pretty much everything that happens in the movie.In the end almost everything looks the same as in the beginning and not much has happened.Sure, Lopez had a small yet positive impact on Nathaniel's life and he,himself, might have gained a little something from that relationship too but I was expecting a wider range of events so to speak...I'm not saying that he should have been cured by the end of the film, as much as Hollywood loves happy endings that would be unrealistic but I did expect something to happen...some kind of development that would make this story worth telling.It never came. Maybe this story(based on real events) just doesn't translate very well to the big screen.I think the film aspired to be great but felt short.On a more positive note, Jamie Foxx's performance was great and felt very authentic.

6/10

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7/10

Good.....but you could sense that it could have been better

blackmambamark26 April 2009

Both Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr. have done nothing but star in big budget box office blockbusters lately. Obviously, the both of them felt that it was time for for something smaller, so that everyone could really see their acting talents, rather than the special effects or comedy that normally swirl around them. Hopefully with this true tale of a homeless man with a gifted talent could bring that about for both of them. The first thing that i must talk about is the acting.......because both Robert Downey and Jamie Foxx brought their "A" game to the table. Especially Jamie Foxx, because since his Oscar winning performance in "Ray", i really haven't seen too much from him.......but this movie certainly showed that he still has it. He should easily be nominated for best supporting actor. Now onto the rest of the film. Well.....it was a really good story, and in a way it was just as well........however, there were sequences that just dragged on, and scenes that were just plain boring. I think the reason was that they didn't really delve into the character development of Robert Downey Jr's role. I didn't really feel why he wanted to help this man so much, and they didn't fully explain the struggles that he himself was going through. To best sum it up, the movie is much like "A Beautiful Mind", but not told as passionately. I mean you could sense the struggle that Jamie Foxx's character was going through......but it just didn't "GET" you like you wanted it to. Bottom Line, the movie was good......but at times it just seemed to drag on waaayyyy too much. I think they should have left some scenes out, or maybe replace them with something that was a little more in-depth with its storytelling. It was good, but you couldn't help but notice that it did have potential to be something better.

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7/10

Solid Film But Not Groundbreaking

Greatornot2 January 2010

For the most part this was an enjoyable film. However, I felt there were missing segments. I know this was based on a true story. I understand that Steve Lopez and Nathaniel Ayers , became unlikely friends and formed an unlikely bond , that inspired one another. I get all this , but again , the film was just a miss. The film featured fantastic acting performances , but the lackluster gaps in this film, through no fault of the actors , I might add, kept this film from being spectacular. Nathaniel Ayers a musician, a brilliant one at that, never realized his dream due to mental illness. Being a homeless person, Steve Lopez, journalist from the L.A. Times smelled a story. Rather than being just another cold story to fill a column quota, Mr. Lopez, gradually became attached to Ayers, thus a human bond developed with true, friendship bonds and no ulterior motives for Lopez. Do not get me wrong this was a nice story and particularly the later part of the movie brought this film from being just an average film to a pretty good film. There were some heartwarming moments and tears but I never really felt a kinship toward the characters, as I usually do in some 'select' moving films. This is definitely worth a watch , for the acting performances alone. Jamie Foxx was equally as good in this film as he was in 'Ray' and of course, we know that Downey Jr. shines in , whatever he does.

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6/10

Solid Performances In a Weak Film

Hellrazr36024 April 2009

As I walked in and sat in a seat at my nearby movie theater waiting to watch The Soloist, I was hoping to get what the trailers seemed promise: a strong, character-driven story led by two talented actors ultimately amounting to a solid film. What I got was half of this. The Soloist does well with some of the material it has, but there are too many missteps throughout the film (especially in the first act) to make it anything above decent.

The film's plot is fairly basic. Robert Downey Jr. plays a writer for the Los Angeles Times (Steve Lopez) who comes across a homeless violin/ex-cello player (Nathaniel Ayers) with Jamie Foxx filling in the character's shoes. Lopez sees potential for Ayers to make a "comeback" so to speak and begins writing a column for him in the newspaper. Of course not everything works out so well and several debacles take place throughout the course of the film. All of this unfolds with some fairly haphazard approaches and mixed results.

What really hurts the film is many of the choices made to progress the plot and emphasize the characters. The scenes which show the viewer what happened to Nathaniel before he became homeless come of as either perfectly adequate or inconsistent. Many of the film's scenes involve multiple voices saying/repeating lines/words over and over which, quite frankly, do get annoying before long. It also feels rather odd having a good few dialogue exchanges occur with both or all of the characters talking at once. Whether this was intentional or not doesn't detract from it feeling unnecessary and taking the viewer out of the unfolding plot.

What does work in the film is the performances by the two lead actors. Downey Jr. does a great job playing a conflicted newspaper writer and he also takes part in a couple...nasty scenes that make for good, brief comedic moments. As for Foxx, he manages to do an equally, if not superior job fitting into his role and, unlike the film itself, barely has any hiccups during his performance. While both put on great performances, don't expect them to be in the running for the Oscars since they come just a slight nudge below excellence in their screen time. Part of this (mostly in Foxx's case) can be attributed to the questionable style of development as mentioned above. For the first half of the film it's tough to really care much about what happens but the second half does help even things out with stronger scenes. In regards to the supporting cast, most of them are negligible and, other than those who have more frequently occurrences (which granted aren't that many), barely stand out.

The Soloist is a film that had plenty of potential to be a precursor to the film releases over the summer. Unfortunately, the film lacks a proper sense of pacing and direction to make it realize this potential. Foxx and Downey Jr. put on two great performances and during some of their key scenes, it's far easier to get immersed in the film. However, the film itself doesn't fare nearly as well and misses the mark just too much to be worthy of a full recommendation.

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7/10

Hard look at homelessness

view_and_review14 November 2021

My first thoughts when this movie started were of the movie "Resurrecting the Champ" with Josh Hartnett and Samuel L. Jackson. That was an excellent movie about a Denver reporter who thought he stumbled upon a former heavyweight champ who was now homeless. That was also based upon a true story.

In "The Soloist" Steven Lopez (Robert Downey Jr.) is a reporter for the L. A. Times who stumbles upon a former Julliard School cellist. Lopez decides to write a human interest piece about this now homeless man named Nathaniel Ayers (Jamie Foxx). The article, which ran serially, garnered Lopez and Ayers a lot of attention. Lopez, in a very demanding way, wanted to turn Ayers' life around for the better as though it was something he had to do and something Ayers had to accept. But Ayers wasn't homeless because he simply had bad breaks or a drug addiction.

Ayers had serious psychological problems, and dealing with a person with mental and psychological problems is not easy as Lopez found out the hard way.

"The Soloist" takes a harder look at homelessness than any movie I've ever seen. This is a problem that hits very close to home for me as I live near San Francisco which is probably now the homeless capital of the country. Ayers was just one type of homeless case--a very gifted individual with a psychological handicap keeping him from a normal life.

This movie is very depressing though it is realistic. You want Ayers to find that something to make him whole, make him right, and make him no longer homeless, but how can someone find what they're not looking for, especially when he doesn't trust those trying to guide him to it? It's a conundrum. "The Soloist" doesn't promise a happy ending, but it promises a real ending.

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10/10

Uplifting: Finding a Golden Needle in the Haystack of Urban Blight

LAKERS3423 April 2009

First off, I should say that I am personally familiar with this story, having worked in downtown L.A. for the last 19 years and seeing Mr Ayers and his cello many a time around 3rd and Hill Sts. I've also read Lopez's columns in the Times for years and followed this one with interest and satisfaction. Making a film about a tale like this restores my belief in Hollywood beyond the mindless bunk it churns out year after year.

Downey Jr and Foxx play a newspaper columnist and homeless man who come together in a most unusual way. Downey is a newspaper columnist looking for something original and interesting to write about. He finds it when he sees Foxx beautifully playing battered stringed instruments along 3rd street in downtown L.A. Foxx has been there for years but on this day grabs the eye of the columnist because the columnist himself is experiencing hardship and doubt related to his own position. He begins to write about this talented but troubled man who fills the stinky air around him with harmony. They become friends but keep in mind this is not fiction. The friendship hits many bumps that continue to this day. Nathaniel Ayers (Foxx's character) may be a brilliant, educated musician, but he suffers from bouts of schizophrenia that manifest at any time. Downey's character accepts this as it adds more intrigue to his columns. Then he accepts it on a personal level. Their friendship ultimately becomes real and meaningful. You sense that Downey's character needs the friendship even more than Foxx's homeless man does. In the end, Downey's Lopez can see the positive effect his work has brought to the plight of the homeless, yet he wonders personally how much better he has made Nathaniel...? His reflections make us think also.

Downey Jr and Foxx play their characters to near perfection and the film masterfully takes its time in developing the relationship between the two. Great to see director Joe Wright telling a contemporary tale just as effectively as he has in previous works. The film makes us wonder how many other Nathaniel Ayers are lurking out there on the streets? Life being what it is, of course we will never know. The beauty of the film is that is shows what can happen when just one Nathaniel Ayers is found after being lost for so many years. There's no sugarcoating; Ayers doesn't magically get better and rejoin mainstream society. Instead, the mainstream accepts him for what he is and what he offers and begins integrating him as best it can. This film will certainly pop up at award time next year.

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7/10

Did I care? Not really.

neil-47630 September 2009

Warning: Spoilers

Journalist Steve Lopez (Robert Downey Jr) happens upon down-and-out Nathaniel Ayres (Jamie Foxx) and discovers he is a superb cellist who has dropped out of society due to schizophrenia. In pursuit of a story, Lopez ends up befriending the hapless Nathaniel.

This movie is essentially Rain Man with a cello. Downey plays the Cruise role of someone who starts off as, essentially, an unlikeable man with only his own interests at heart, but who becomes a more compassionate and caring person as a matter of necessity. Foxx plays the Hoffman role of someone who (ironically) would have been referred to by Downey's Tropic Thunder character as "full retard." The story is always interesting, although it is a little unsatisfying in that there is no formal resolution - a closing voice-over and titles inform us that Nathaniel is still just as mentally precarious as ever.

This is Downey's film - the Lopez character has a satisfying development arc. Conversely, while Foxx does well in delivering Nathaniel's speech patterns and sometimes there, sometimes not attitudes, the character doesn't change and is difficult to feel sympathy for.

And that is a flaw which lies at the heart of this movie. Despite the fact that it holds your interest, it is difficult to care. I should have cared but, come the end, I discovered that I didn't.

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4/10

The plot thinnens

doctorsmoothlove16 June 2009

Warning: Spoilers

The Soloist has all ingredients to impress the Academy. Its director, Joe Wright, has already authored a best picture candidate. The leading actor, Robert Downey Jr., starred in a widely praised superhero film. Finally, the movie itself is a drama. When it was mysteriously pulled from release in late 2008, filmgoers and critics were baffled. Now that I've seen it, I assure you Universal didn't just delay this film to promote Iron Man-Oscar buzz. The Soloist is a weak drama with no external conflict that is vastly inferior to any 2009 best picture candidates.

Downey and co-star Jamie Fox aren't to be blamed for this mishap. Joe Wright is largely at fault but even he can't save a Lifetime story. Many movies are too complex and alienate viewers. This one is unusually simple. It's a movie about a newspaper reporter, Steve Lopez (Downey), who befriends a homeless musician, Nathaniel Ayers (Jamie Fox). That's it. Ayers is schizophrenic and doesn't resonate with Lopez's traditional approach to friendship. The two become friends. They begin this movie as acquaintances and are BFFs by its end. Tension consists of moments like this: will Ayers let Lopez take him to the homeless shelter? This material would have been better suited as a made-for-TV production rather than a feature film.

Wright includes many scenes of cheap humor to obscure the lack of content. Lopez battles yard-defiling raccoons in what I consider a sub-plot. Do you remember when this happened in Atonement or Pride and Prejudice? Those films were structured enough to permit an occasional joke but nothing so prolonged. Ayers' back story is fleshed out when it doesn't need to be. Worst of all, these scenes are not connected and appear at random intervals. It's a way of admitting that the main story carries little appeal. Nathaniel was a violin prodigy with a tough upbringing (I was too). This is a fabricated attempt to create sympathy with Ayers when most of us already have it. He's a homeless schizophrenic for crying out loud! The movie somewhat conveys humanity's love for music, like Amadeus and Beethoven Lives Upstairs. It isn't as effective as either of those pictures, however. The entire film is hinged on Ayers' schizophrenia. It ultimately is how he interacts with everyone else. His being a musician is a nice touch but hardly worth including. The film doesn't incorporate this characteristic fully into his persona. Take music out of Amadeus or Beethoven Lives Upstairs, and no film remains. The Soloist is more about friendship in general than music. Nathaniel could be a writer or film critic and few lines of dialog would need to be seriously altered.

This is only Joe Wright's third film, and his first that isn't a romance staring Keira Knightley. Let's hope this film isn't an indication of how limited his abilities are. There are stylistic nods to his earlier works but The Soloist is much weaker than either of them. In his defense, Universal should not have agreed to widely release this picture. This film seems tailored for Imagine Entertainment (distributors of Changeling). I wouldn't be so disappointed with it if had a limited release. Its poor box office performance may inhibit better dramas from being distributed nationally.

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10/10

The Truth about Schizophrenia

bw1112 May 2009

I sometimes work clinically with schizophrenics. This film shows us the truth about working with severely mentally ill people. David, the man who runs the shelter for the homeless honestly spoke the truth with his stance that is opposite of what the Pharmaceutical Industry, most of psychiatry and the legal system try to make us believe. David was my hero in this movie.

All though the movie goes quickly over Jamie Fox's childhood trauma and losses -- it's still there, i.e. no father and the truck on fire represent some of the traumas that created his illness. Homeless people with mental illness did not come from healthy childhoods. Almost all came from repeated childhood trauma.(see New Zealand Psychologist John Read PhD and colleagues, the ACE Study from the CDC, and Charles Whitfield's book The Truth about Mental Illness, 2004).

Hollywood did not cover over the painful truths in this story. Jamie Fox's character's mother and his sister were good people and that comes through but they couldn't prevent his wounding. At the end of the film, we are told "90,000 Homeless people in Los Angeles." We walked out of the theater overwhelmed with that figure and uplifted by this true story.

If you're really interested in the truth about schizophrenia there is an excellent DVD documentary called Take These Broken Wings: Recover from Schizophrenia without Medication by Daniel Mackler

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6/10

Reporter finds music on the streets-movie version loses the point

southbase3 May 2009

Arrestingly-filmed yet oddly distanced dramatization of LA Times columnist Steve Lopez's (Robert Downey, Jr) series of articles regarding his befriending and increased sponsoring of a failed classical musician, Nathaniel Ayers (Jamie Foxx), now begging for change near several of the city's musical landmarks and during his investigations becoming forced to explore his own societal and interpersonal biases & fears. Lopez appeared to accept from reader reaction that Ayers--swerving between trilled spouting of information and history and self-dangerous descents into violent rage--came through the reportage more believably and immediate when the two went into action together--touring old haunts, enduring rehab, abandoned family members like Ayers' sister Jennifer (Lisagay Hamilton) reintroduced to him yet the encounters brim with recrimination. Yet through the patient and increasing level of support not just from the uncertain Lopez (almost driven to drink or career distraction without the knowing, cheeky support of his ex-wife and editor (Catherine Keener) but from an unexpectedly diverse range of contributors in LA and around the US who register their remembrance of Ayers or admiration of Lopez' remarkable patience and dedicated journalism, the film winds everything through a completely overburdened halfway house in the second half where Ayers himself will make the film's climactic decision on whether to embrace the help of esteemed classical musicians and a stable household or destroy himself in the immense miasma of the LA slums. THE SOLOIST refuses to either take sides or provide easy answers, and to a degree director Joe Wright (ATONEMENT) looks like he could pull the film version's ethically unovert conditions off successfully. Downey and Foxx throughout the film compete with Wright's excessively willful, almost smothering stylization--very hard key lighting and light source spillage, minimalist background staging, profile close-ups and crowded two shots whipped away by breathtaking location zoom lensing, all topped off with a breathtaking hi-fidelity sound mix (the orchestra scenes sound like the mikes were placed right into the bowstrings), alternating with reassuringly traditional lighting and designing of scenes of Ayers' childhood and early education at Julliard. Downey is particularly impressive, seeming to get steadily greyer and more anxious as he guides and controls Ayers' naive remembrances and stocky musical technique into repicking up his beloved cello permanently. As Ayers, Foxx packs a generally believable punch playing a street urchin who was capable of much more, and as the relationship developed I noticed Susannah Grant's screenplay devoting an inordinate--some might say unbalanced--amount of time to both Ayers and the wonky lot of the city's environs, creating understandably large amounts of audience empathy yet tottering a little too trustworthily into the comfort zone of a $60 million dollar big-star vehicle lecturing America about the poor. The result is that Foxx's zombied character conception (the fault may be more Grant's than his, though) lacks either the leavening humor, sociopolitical complexity, and symbolic gravitas (the film version cannot decide if its supposed to be a docudrama or a riveting psychological examination) to humanize him against Lopez and make them a representational force of both their adoptive city or their career frustrations. THE SOLOIST in the end does make for a occasionally striking and formatively well-acted drama but its arch technique and lack of severe social reverberation fails to take detailed advantage of two very fine actors and only partly captures the playful yet deeply haunting contact of an American journalist to a specimen/victim of America's obstinate focus on success and what an 'artist' should be.

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4/10

Film seems to claim schizophrenics don't need medication?

kyrat28 May 2010

Warning: Spoilers

I know someone with schizophrenia. He needs to be medicated in order to function. While medicated he can function normally (work, play music, be married), when unmedicated he becomes paranoid, self destructive & suicidal.

Therefore it really saddened me that the LAMP director argued against medicating Nathaniel (of course he doesn't want it, he can't tell he's crazy!) and even after a violent attack against Lopez, he doesn't take the steps necessary to get help for Nathaniel.

Yes, support and friendship are important, but when you can't differentiate between reality and delusion, when voices in your head control your actions, you do need medical intervention.

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Two Good Strings

tedg24 April 2009

Yes, you can trust Joe Wright with your life, without bound for two hours.

Some parts of this are simply ordinary. There's the original sequence of stories which exploited the simple tension of discarded talent in a city that both worships talent and discards people wholesale. These were simple structures, headlines and patronizing prose.

There's the screenplay by a hack, with simple shape and essentially no movement. In other words, forget what people usually think a movie is about: the people and the story. Those parts are missing. There is no happy ending. There is no redemption.

But this has three things: madness, music and the marriage of madness and music.

I saw this right after "State of Play," a traditional newspaper movie, with archetypal writer and editor. This is a modern version with two of our most folded actors: Downey and Keener. Their job is simple: define an edge between internal and external. The coupled acting here is not between Downey and Foxx, but between Downey and Keener playing a recently divorced couple. There's a quiet tension these two build around the absent son, whose place Foxx's character fills.

Foxx makes not a character but an phenomenon, an experience, this experience of madness in music. He is helped by being placed amid folks who we are told are "real disturbed people." What Wright has is a fairly vacuous notion of madness, but a sublime talent in expressing it cinematically. Some of his tricks are trivial when considered independently: a cutout of Ayers getting smaller and "disappearing into" the music; a cheesy light show to Beethoven; an attempt to conflate voices in the head to music in the head. This latter is very real but the expression is cheap.

While they seem trite individually, none are used heavily or relied on. And the effect when combined with more masterly things produces a symphony of excess. Downey's character remarks on the sheer depth, the love the penetration in describing just this very thing we see. It works. Music, indeed all real paths through passion are madness. Every adventure into commitment is a step outside safety of self.

Wright knows this. He feels it. He can show it. I can trust him with my life. Its madness to do so, but I recommend it to you.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

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