The Soloist DVD
Cast: Jamie Foxx, Robert Downey Jr, Catherine Keener, Tom Hollander
Dir: Joe Wright
Rating: 4/5
After the success of Atonement back in 2007 you would have expected Joe Wright to capitalise on that success but it has taken two years for him to make another movie.
And the movie comes in the form of The Soloist, his first foray into American movies, as he bring together an impressive cast of Oscar winner Jamie Foxx and Oscar nominee Robert Downey Jr.
Columnist with the Los Angeles Times, Steve Lopez (Robert Downey Jr.) ultimately becomes an advocate for L.A.’s homeless population when he meets Nathaniel Ayers (Jamie Foxx), a talented musician who's been playing a two-stringed violin while living on the streets and battling mental illness.
Struck by Ayers’s passion for music, Lopez begins to write a series of columns about his new acquaintance while attempting to get him off the streets and playing music again.
Amidst numerous achievements and setbacks, Lopez and Ayers develop a friendship based on mutual respect despite their many differences, and Lopez rediscovers his humanity.
While it's good to see Wright back in the director's chair the driving force behind this movie is, without doubt, the lead actors in the form of Foxx and Downey Jr as they prove to be a powerful combination. Foxx is left to run with his character of Ayers, whose only desire is to play music, and his performance is every bit as good as that in Ray.
Downey Jr on the other hand plays a more straight role, although he does provide much of the movie's humour, as journalist Steve Lopez. But he too is a flawed human being who is struggling with life.
Together they create these two characters that don't always fit together Lopez, to a certain extent, exploits Ayers to a certain degree for his own career until he understands that the only way he can help him is to simply be his friend.
While Ayers isn't always comfortable with the demands that Lopez puts on him and just wants his new found friend to accept him the way that he is.
Wright has delivered another very powerful and beautiful movie that while it does focus on the growing friendship of these two men does have very string political connotations.
The film also tackles the harsh realities of homelessness and the plight of the mentally ill in a very forthright and unflinching way, that is very refreshing.
But the movies doesn't fall into the Hollywood traps of many movie that tackle mental illness and there is no contrived or over sentimental ending, which is also great to see.
Wright further cements himself as a visual filmmaker as he uses the city of LA as a beautiful backdrop to the movie. But the best example of Wright's great visual style is when he demonstrates Nathaniel's perception of Beethoven's music by using bright colour on a black background.
The movie isn't without it's flaws; it's a tad long and possibly loses a bit of momentum in the middle, but his images of poverty, squalor and mental illness in LA’s underclass really does pack a punch.
And while the film does tug at the heart-strings, you can't help but back these characters and hope they come out the other side of their struggles, the audience does feel at arms length and The Soloist isn't as emotional and powerful as it could have been.
But Wright has produced another very beautiful picture and the central performances from Downey Jr and Foxx are some of the best that you will see this year and it's a major shame that it's going to miss out this Oscar season.
The Soloist is out on DVD now
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw