The Soloist Review

Set to come out in December, The Soloist is finally coming to theaters, post-Oscar season. In many ways it’s a shame. The Soloist has all the pieces to be an under-the-rug critically acclaimed Academy Award winner. It has a strong lead performance, a strong supporting performance, phenomenal camera work, great directing, and is an exposé of an otherwise taboo topic: mentally unstable homeless.

The Soloist is the story of a writer trying to find a story. Steve Lopez (Robert Downey Jr.) has, to use a movie trailer cliché, “a string of bad luck”. Lopez writes a column in the L.A. Times when he comes across Nathaniel Ayers, a homeless musician who Lopez hears outside one afternoon playing a violin with only 2 strings. Lopez writes a column about Nathaniel, one of several to later come. Nathaniel has schizophrenia and often times seems confused, paranoid, and at times, hostile.

The thing you won’t be hearing about this movie is what fine acting you see from Robert Downey Jr. At times his performance is clearly in the shadow of Foxx, whose mammoth performance simply takes the spotlight, similarly to Foxx’s character. But Downey Jr. has no problem truly going mad for the role. He shows us an accurate and honest portrayal of a man who is having trouble dealing with a schizophrenic but at the same time is trying to help. Lopez wants desperately to help Nathaniel to the point of medication, but in his attempts he distances himself from him.

Foxx seemed like Semisonic’s hit Closing Time: a one-hit-wonder. He did a phenomenal job in 2004 with acting nominations for Ray (a role he won for) and Collateral, and despite being in the business for a while previously, had never shown true acting chops til then. But Jamie Foxx is truly back in business. His role in The Soloist is Oscar worthy in a month when Oscar worthy performances are only seen in the distance. Foxx delivers impeccable dialogue and gives such a great performance it has to make one wonder: Could Foxx have beat out Heath Ledger for best Supporting Actor last year?

But if one man is going to get the credit, it has to be director Joe Wright. In a brief history Wright first captured public attention with Pride and Prejudice in 2005 and then again in 2007 with Atonement, both very good movies, but nowhere near the caliber of filmmaking we see with The Soloist. Wright is famous for his track shots (if you’ve seen Atonement you know the 5 minute track shot on the beach to be something most filmmakers are never able to accomplish) and we see them hear in full force. The best shot would have to be a long take through a street filled with the homeless sleeping outside in a variety of different trash bins, cardboard, ect. Wright is able to capture what it is like to be schizophrenic in a very real and relatable way. Rather than just see Nathaniel as an item in a movie, Nathaniel is brought to life. We hear the voices we hear, and we experience what in some surreal way, it is like for him to experience music.

At one moment Lopez asks his ex-wife what it is that Nathaniel has that allows him to love something like music, as much as he does. Her response really sums up the tone of the movie. In a one word line she responds with “grace”. In some magnificent combination of things Wright is able to express what it is that “grace” means to Nathaniel, and that’s all that really matters in the end. Grade - A-