The Soloist: Movie Review

The Soloist: Movie Review

Rating: 6/10
Cast: Robert Downey Jr, Jamie Foxx, Catherine Keener, Tom Hollander
Director: Joe Wright
Robert Downey Jr plays LA Times columnist Steve Lopez in this true life story about Nathaniel Ayers (played by Jamie Foxx), a musical prodigy whose life didn't go the way he was expecting.
Ayers was on course to make a splash in the music world and was studying at the prestigious Julliard school of music when he developed schizophrenia and ended up homeless on the streets of downtown LA.
Lopez was the journalist who, amid the possibility of cuts on the LA Times and reporter lay offs, ended up finding Ayers (after looking for a story) and forming a friendship with him.
The Soloist is their story - and details the highs and lows of living with mental illness.
Both Downey Jr and Foxx are pretty damn good in their respective roles - Downey Jr continues to cement his reputation as a comeback king with this role which is imbued with humanity and warmth; Foxx manages to expertly convey the reality of living with the condition of paranoid schizophrenia - but it's director Joe Wright who somehow manages to fudge this film and stops it from soaring (even though it does feel at times like a showreel for the 2010 Oscars)
Whereas there are subtle moments which show the toll an illness takes on those around them, there are some moments where it feels like Wright's direction is beating you over the head with a hammer to make a point.
At one key juncture, Ayers is shown to be consumed by his music and transported by his passion (he views Beethoven's music as a series of coloured dots dancing on the black screen) - these are the moments which make you appreciate what Ayers' character is truly like- as opposed to a scene where Ayers is playing cello and a pair of birds soar through the sky and swoop back and forth amongst the cityscapes.
It's at times like that that Joe Wright manages to plumb the stereotypes and drag the overall film down.
It's a very human approach to schizophrenia and manages to work because it doesn't show Lopez having all the answers (and even struggling to realize what exactly he's got himself into)- in fact one of the key moments sees a social worker telling Downey Jr's character that Ayers doesn't need curing or help, he simply needs a friend.
Lopez is an odd character - he simply befriends Ayers to start off with because it makes good copy and sells papers as well as filling column inches - and at times, he manages to come across as naïve as he suggests Ayers needs medicating.
On reflection though, it occurs to me that Lopez's reactions are those of every human being who's a little uneducated to what they've witnessed.
Foxx is heartbreaking to watch as the demons start to set in while at college - these scenes are effective as the whispering voices nag at him and start to overwhelm him.
Even in his moments of clarity, Ayers is still dangerously close to the edge - and Foxx manages to convey it in a haunting and affecting way.

It's thanks to the virtuoso performances of the two lead actors that this film manages to succeed - but it's sadly due to the director that it doesn't soar as much as perhaps it should.