CINEMA: The Soloist

With a heart warming true story like the one featured in this film it was likely that Universal thought they had a possible Oscar winner on their hands.

With a heart warming true story like the one featured in this film it was likely that Universal thought they had a possible Oscar winner on their hands.

It tells the story of LA Times journalist Steve Lopez (Robert Downey Jr) who, looking for something to write about in his weekly column, discovers a mentally ill homeless guy named Nathaniel Ayers (Jamie Foxx) who play beautiful classical music in the city streets on the two strings of his tatty violin.

Lopez set about writing a series of articles on Ayers and the lives of the many other homeless people in LA in the hope of improving his and their lives. So you have a ready made story of adversity, a central character of a journalist who is angry at the city’s government and wants to do something to help those less fortunate; and the other lead who is mentally challenged but capable of making lovely music to charm the audience and hopefully the Academy voters as well.

So what went wrong?

Well, like many many other biographical dramas that have reached us over the years this is directed in such a clichéd “movie of the week” way you are never really carried along with the story which has the emotional depth of a cheese sandwich. British director Joe Wright has proved that he can handle complex drama before with the excellent Pride & Prejudice and the acclaimed Atonement but here he seems to be coasting along and falls back on the tried and tested technique of show a bit of the present and then simply flashback to Ayers’ past so we can learn a little bit at a time about what made him go slightly loopy and live on the streets.

This has been done so many times before and in much better hands but maybe it’s the syrupy script from Susannah Grant and Steve Lopez himself that fails to really set the story alight and get the audience to fully engage in the unfolding drama. There is no doubt that this is a fascinating, interesting and intelligent story, and the book is probably awesome but the screenplay is peppered with clichéd dialogue and character arcs.

However the two central performances from Downey Jr and Foxx are excellent. Downey Jr does now seem to play himself in nearly every role ,but that seems to work and although this role is similar to his one in Zodiac he gives Lopez enough rope to hang himself as he is so determined and dedicated but remains likeable and redeemable by the third act.

Foxx proves again why he won the Oscar for Ray as he makes Ayers wholly human in an astoundingly realistic way, with his repeating of words and phrases and crazy dress sense but with an obvious deep-rooted intelligence and huge love for music that calms him down when performing it. Foxx is electric in every scene he is in, out-acting Downey Jr in the showier role but Downey Jr is also needed to bring the film to its inevitable and predictable conclusion.

The Soloist is worth seeing for the performances for sure but not for script or direction, however the Bach and Beethoven Ayers plays makes the film come alive, and that is a beautiful thing.

Mark Cappuccio