If you like classical music, music in general, you will love this film. There is a toughness to The Soloist due to its theme of homelessness as well as life as a journalist. The main protagonist is based on a real person diagnosed with schizophrenia who exists in Los Angeles. He is often referred to as a transient person which to me is the politically correct yet somehow glossy term for a homeless street person that truly understates the situation. Many of the street people in some scenes are actually playing a version of themselves for the ‘community center’ and street sequences. However, if that is said and you still want to view The Soloist, definitely go to a high end theatre with a good sound system. The filmmakers develop the story permeated with classical strains aplenty, allowing the music the status of a character. 

Jamie Foxx portrays child music prodigy Nathaniel Anthony Ayers with a subtle flair. Robert Downey, Jr. imbues news guy Steve Lopez with his usual élan. Catherine Keener divests herself nicely in a secondary character, Lopez’s editor. Notable performances giving depth to the story were the center supervisor and Ayers’ mother. The outcome for the unlikely trio is an interesting chemistry.   

Can journalism truly convey reality; can publishing it matter as a consequence? Can one person fix another? Is friendship about anything more than being there for the ‘friend’? Most of this came across in the film to the satisfaction of the actual Steve Lopez, writer for the Los Angeles Times who just wanted the situation to be brought to the attention of mainstream folks. He is in very few ways the man of the film script.

 

The story also attempts to convey Lopez’s emerging appreciation for not only the passionate musical prowess of Ayers, but also his own forgotten love of music. By degrees, Lopez gains not only an unlikely friend; he begins a deeper exploration of musical nuance.  During one sequence where Ayers is playing his new cello in an acoustically friendly part of a tunnel, his classical training evident, Lopez is momentarily entranced. The camera leaves him and follows some pigeons, the bird world equivalent of street people, up out of the tunnel, up through the glassy canyons of downtown Los Angeles until they emerge into the wide open spaces up with the clouds. This ain’t a bad way to listen to classical music. Theatre sound systems are incredible, certainly better than my car or home systems.

In another sequence, a spontaneous moment evolves into a mild homage to Disney’s Fantasia, music underlay is in computerized lockstep with moving fractals in brilliant colors exploding across the big screen, which I found enjoyable. 

Difficult to endure were the street scenes of one ‘community’ center populated with every manner of disenfranchised people. Some are in their own melodrama with ensemble casts, others are solitary, locked away in their minds. All too realistic for my comfort, which is why this film is a must see, and at the same time a tough gig. The day and night depictions of this densely inhabited street and center brought tears. The Soloist is uplifting, well acted and sometimes inspired in framing. In spite of the filmmakers’ relentless portrayal of the misfortune of our street people, they succeed in keeping us in our seats with music and story and engaging characters. The horrid conditions of these areas, the gross mismanagement of funds and our continued indifference to them are examined more in the style of a documentary. As with most documentaries, one is left with information, a sense of outrage, but no real solutions. 

Overall, The Soloist is a compassionate portrayal of the plight of the misfit in our society and the ultimately mystifying schizophrenic mind.

DreamWorks Pictures

Jamie Foxx

Robert Downey Jr.

Catherine Keener.

Directed by Joe Wright

(Golden Globe winner for Best Drama and Oscar® nominee for Best Picture “Atonement”).

Rating:   Rated PG-13 for thematic elements, some drug use and language.

Length:    119 Minutes