Not a perfect performance, but still audible
This true story begins with a Los Angeles news reporter, named Steve Lopez, needing a story to write about. He bumps into an intriguing homeless man named Nathaniel Ayers, who is suffering from schizophrenia. What intrigues Lopez is that Ayers can play an eloquent instrument (such as the violin) very well, almost too good. Lopez digs deeper into Ayers’ past and soon discovers that he was once an unstoppable musician with limitless talent. Lopez now must find a way to help Ayers out through his disease and get him back to do what he was born to do; play music.
The Soloist had some fantastic potential to be epic. You could have put it up there with Immortal Beloved or Amadeus, but it seemed to falter in places. Before I get into the bad, let’s talk about what this movie did right. The two onscreen personalities of Foxx and Downey, Jr. were a perfect fit. They seemed to play off each other easily and didn’t seem like an ‘odd’ couple or forced characters. It was believable that Downey, Jr. could be that fast-talking newspaper reporter who was simply trying to better other people, as well as himself. It was an amazing piece of work for him, but one that seemed to not take much effort to accomplish. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing, but he certainly looked comfortable in the role he was playing.
As for Jamie Foxx, he seems to have shaped himself into a solid actor. Most people might think that he’s carrying a bit of ‘Ray’ into this role, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Foxx is believable as a man suffering from schizophrenia. How he perceives everyone and everything is amazingly accurate for folks suffering from such a terrible thing. He shows his character can stretch a bit, but also shows that there are limitations to what he will and won’t do (Ayers, not Foxx). For me, I was excited about seeing Robert Downey, Jr. in a serious film. Ultimately, Foxx was the star in this movie and outshined everyone onscreen; simply put, Foxx was brilliant again.
The performances from both men were the bright spots of the film. The not so bright spot was the story itself. Truth be told, I haven’t looked too much into the ‘true story’ portion of this film, but it seemed a bit off. The bond that is built at the beginning of the film between Ayers and Lopez seemed to be solid. When Lopez shatters that bond through greed and self-serving intentions, the movie gets a bit imbalanced. The turn from bond to broken bond is subtle, it’s rather quick; it’s really too quick for the story to seem healthy from beginning to end. So just as you’re watching Lopez getting to know Ayers more and more, Lopez suddenly prints his story and breaks the relationship. If it weren’t for how Ayers was written at the moment it was broken, you would realize how terribly quick and out of place the break felt. The moment happens when Ayer’s comes to visit Lopez at his place of business, but Lopez shuns him, which is a sad moment; one that isn’t at all necessary. I know that writer Susannah Grant was trying to show the transformation for Lopez from egotistical a-hole to a man finally understanding what’s happening in front of him, but it simply didn’t work out that way. From this point on in the film you run into little oddities that seem like quick bursts of plot points rather than cohesive material that belonged together. The introduction of Ayers to the religious Graham Claydon (Tom Hollander — love that guy, he’s so weaselly) was awkward. First, Ayers gave no indication of how he felt about religion, so that was never established. Second, Claydon presses upon him religion through music, which was awkward. The entire collective of interactions between Ayers and Claydon was forced to simply get a reaction out of Ayers. It was oddly placed in the middle of the film as Ayers life was on an upswing and it was never a comfortable fit. These small bursts of plot points and happenings made this film very disorganized from middle to end. It almost seemed like it wasn’t sure where it wanted to go, but it certainly was heading towards an ending of some sort.
With that said, you should still see this movie because the two lead actors gave some of their best stuff to the film. They redeemed it and helped to finish on a somewhat high note (no pun intended).
Music to the eyes and ears
There are only a handful of dramas that truly benefit from the HD upgrade in both audio and video; The Soloist is one of these dramas. It gives you a beautiful, yet dreadful, view of Los Angeles. It also provides you with some of the most stunning landscape footage of the city that you’ll find anywhere. Most of the view is harsh, but necessary. The footage ends up incredibly more effective when you’re seeing it in 1080p. It will pull you in and spit you out, which is what the movie wants to do. As for the audio, in contrast to the video you get some of the most gorgeous classical music played. TrueHD 5.1 never sounded so good.
As for features, here’s what you’re looking at:
– An Unlikely Friendship: Making The Soloist
– Deleted Scenes
– Commentary by Director Joe Wright
– Kindness, Courtesy and Respect: Mr. Ayers and Mr. Lopez
– Beth’s Story
– One Size Does Not Fit All: Addressing Homelessness in Los Angeles
– Juilliard: The Education of Nathaniel Ayers
– Theatrical Trailer
This movie is packed with a wealth of interesting features and ones, more importantly, that compliment the film really well. You’ll find a wealth of goodness here.