It probably seems like all my movie reviews have been quite positive thus far; maybe for the except for The Holy Girl. For the sake of some balance to my blog, I will now talk about The Soloist, a more recent movie starring Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr.
The film is based on a true story of Nathaniel Ayers, a musician who studied at Julliard but became schizophrenic and homeless. Steve Lopez, played by Downey, discovers Ayers and his talent on the streets of Los Angeles. Eventually, Lopez writes a feature article on Ayers in the Los Angeles which garner some attention for Ayers. Lopez even tries to get Ayers back into the music world by introducing him to a cellist and someone at the Walts Disney Concert Hall.
The story looks great on paper and is an inspirational story, but I think the story is badly translated onto the screen. Foxx's costumes are awful to look. I got pretty annoyed of having to look at him. The character of Lopez isn't given enough attention by Joe Wright who directed Pride and Prejudice and Atonement (Atonement is one of my favorite films). Furthermore, there's a lack of focus on the message of the film. It would have been great had Wright just left the film being a story on the life of Ayers. But at the end, he sort of twisted it into a film about homeless people of Los Angeles. The biggest problem, still, is that the film is poorly executed.
Downey does, however, deliver a great performance as a caring but stern supporter who helps Ayers and hopes the best for him.
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