focoproject.com

The Soloist

I have to say that Joe Wright is quickly rising up on my list of good directors. His Pride & Prejudice definitely surprised me with its stellar cinematography, solid directing and superior acting. Atonement went on to get nominated for a Best Picture Oscar and in its case I felt it was well deserved. The Soloist comes right behind, falling short mostly for script issues than for anything having to do with the directing. Nevertheless, this is a film that is worth the watch.

Based on a true story, The Soloist tells the story of Steve Lopez (Robert Downey Jr.; Iron Man, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints), a Los Angeles reporter who has been down in the dumps and has been unable to secure himself a worthy story, who coincidentally meets up with Nathaniel Ayers (Jaime Foxx; Ray, Any Given Sunday) a former Jilliard student now living in Skid Row. What starts as a happenstance incident soon provokes Lopez’ curiosity enough to want to seek out Ayers and try to nail down his story, which as it unfolds becomes more and more compelling. Eventually, as a bond is forged, Lopez finds himself making a friend, not just chasing the story of his life.

Once again Wright excels in his directing and both Downey Jr. and Foxx nail their characters with precision, giving them a human side to them which is very easy to relate to. The film also brings out a joy for music through the innocent, pure appreciation portrayed by Ayers, which elevates this film from a simple movie going experience to something altogether more fulfilling. When the moment comes where, all you see in the screen are colors and find yourself mesmerized by the music, you know the director has done his job.

This is however, not a perfect film, I felt that most of the problems stemmed from the adaptation to screenplay, where a number of scenes that might have been cute or funny made the cut, but were not necessarily crucial to the story. When someone like Wright is a the helm and making all the other scene works, the arbitrary scenes that might be needed for other people, become moot here. Case in point, would be the entire deal with the groundhogs at Lopez’ house. It was funny, yes, cute, sure, it does show character development…but given the amount of time spent there, they could have used it instead on the main story, advancing not just the character but also giving us more on the strange but beautiful friendship that blossoms between these two men. Still, a very good film and one I highly recommend.