A highly anticipated film's release date suddenly being moved from Oscar season to the spring is never a good sign.
Though The Soloist features talented actors and an inspirational story, it is a little too aware of its excellent pedigree, and tries too hard to manipulate the emotions of its audience. Like many Oscar wannabes before it, it's a shiny box with nothing inside.
The Soloist is the true story of Nathaniel Ayers (Jamie Foxx), a musical prodigy who attended the Juilliard School only to drop out and become homeless on the streets of Los Angeles. Journalist Steve Lopez (Robert Downey Jr.) happens upon Ayers and decides to write a column about him. Though he initially views Ayers as just another assignment, Lopez soon finds himself compelled to help the struggling musician.
Foxx and Downey are Oscar-winning and Oscar-nominated actors, respectively, but these are not their best performances. Downey's character is supposed to develop from a brash workaholic to a loving and considerate friend, but Downey plays Lopez as a sarcastic jerk throughout the entire film. Managing to be unlikeable while helping a homeless man is quite a skill. Lopez acts as if he only cares about Nathaniel when doing so benefits his career. That may be the truth, but it doesn't make for a very good story.
Foxx's performance is better, but playing a downtrodden musician is not exactly new territory for him. Replace blindness and heroin addiction with schizophrenia and Nathaniel Ayers is not so different from Ray.
By the end of the film, every single character has become extremely unpleasant to watch. It's difficult to sustain a film with no likable characters.
Ayers' back story -- from poor kid, to promising musician, to living on the streets -- is the most fascinating part of the story. The flashback scenes of Ayers' childhood and subsequent mental breakdown at Juilliard are moving, and his journey from prodigy to street dweller probably could have warranted a movie on its own.
It's a shame more time isn't spent on that part of the story. Most of the scenes in which Downey is interacting with Ayers and writing about him feel extremely tenuous. A side story about the relationship between Downey and his ex-wife (Catherine Keener) lengthens the movie but adds nothing relevant to the plot.
Fans of classical music will enjoy the film's soundtrack, which is lovingly constructed of classical compositions, mostly by Ludwig van Beethoven and Johann Sebastian Bach. However, the filmmakers often get lost in the music and forget about the story they're trying to tell. For example, an entire piece of classical music is played while the only image on the screen is a plethora of changing colors. It's supposed to symbolize that Nathaniel doesn't just hear music like other people, he also sees and feels it, but it just sort of looks like a screensaver.
The most important parts of The Soloists' storyline are outlined in the trailer. There's really no need to watch the entire thing. Though the film is an adequate drama about the strange relationship that develops between two very different men, it's far too ambitious and grandiose for its own good -- evident by its attempt to turn itself into a public service announcement about the homeless. But its message seems to be that if you are homeless, the only way to better your circumstances is to catch a famous person's attention with a prodigious skill.
Grade: C-
