Films: The Soloist (2009)

Dir: Joe Wright

Cast: Robert Downey Jr, Jamie Foxx, Catherine Keener

Apparently I have recently acquired a penchant for true stories of a gritty nature. The Soloist is just one such tale.

Nathaniel Ayers was a very gifted Julliard-trained cellist who wound up on the street after he dropped out of college at the first signs of mental instability. He embraced the acoustic qualities of busy tunnels and urban spaces and learned to play a two stringed violin. He carted around all of his possessions in a rusty shopping trolley. Then one day, Steve Lopez, uninspired columnist for the LA times, happened across the musical prodigy and found that he suddenly had someone to write about.

The two formed an unlikely bond, overcoming all that separated them from each other and the rest of society around them. Lopez's column became a book, which has now become a film. A beautiful, inspiring, moving film.

Foxx is excellent as the mentally ill Ayers. It's hard to 'do crazy' well, but he manages. His gabbling verbal diarrhoea is endearing, and, a classically trained musician himself, he shows a genuine connection to the music he plays. From moments of calm to emotional peaks, Foxx manages the task well. Excellently.

Downey Jr is, as ever, charming and fixating as the unmotivated and disengaged journalist. At first, you feel that his friendship with Ayers in entirely selfishly motivated (and it may well have been in reality) but, by the end, the relationship has brought as much to his life as Ayers'.

Wright brings a raw energy and grit to the film which was shot largely on location on Skid Row. Somehow, Wright has found a way to make even this grimy setting appear wonderfully vibrant. The crazy characters that colour the street scenes are probably still there even now, singing, dancing, chatting, smoking, fighting, yawning and curling up under sheets of card. The supporting cast (those that are actually actors) are well cast, never encroaching too much on the main focus of the two men. It's a great story, because it does not have a happy ending. The American dream fails some people. Often the most gifted and worthy recipients are the ones who fall short.

My rating: **** 4/5 stars

Recommendation: Be wowed by Foxx and Downey Jr. Be inspired by Lopez and Ayers.