My Review on The Soloist.

It's hard to really critique the plot of a film based on a true story.  The facts are there. Questions you can ask:  Was this a good portrayal? Was this worth making a movie about the topic?  Was it well-executed?  Also, I will use spoilers since this is not only a movie review, but a true story.

I put up really tough defenses before I watched this movie.  I had read a story on an internet news site a while back that described Jamie Foxx having a personal breakdown and feeling crazy, while making this movie.   Due to my own mental illness (bipolar, general and social anxiety),  I realized that this could personally affect me.   I often feel like I'm losing my mind over small things, because stress doesn't affect me the way it does others.... this is not a support group... I will move on. However, this does mean  I can't review this movie objectively.

I'm already partial to Robert Downey, Jr., I adore his face and his ability to come back after an addiction to what we shall call "porridge".   Downey did a great job in the movie of making me forget I was watching him.  It could have been  made up injuries from his character, Steve Lopez's, bicycle crash, but as those faded I still just saw him.  He had a really tough job to work with acting with emotions around an obviously sillly-looking Jamie Foxx.    Upon seeing trailers for this movie, I actually thought "oh, here comes Jamie Foxx just lookin' for an Oscar", and so I personally challenged him to prove me wrong.  He won.  He really did seem just like an insane person, and it wasn't because of his stupid hair or outrageous makeup.  It was because he came through as a vulnerable, dynamic person, despite the image.   You didn't see this silly guy, you saw a guy trying to connect with someone, but held back by his own mental illness.

Realistically, this is a buddy movie.  But I watched a tale of human tragedy.   I just bought into it.  I could imagine how it would be hard to form clear sentences and not just babble words to remember who and where you were, if you were hearing a crowd of voices in your mind all the time.   I could also understand how frustrating it would be to try to work with and eventually befriend someone who is so strange, so emotionally fragile, and who has quickly become emotionally close to you. Lopez wanted to befriend him, but Ayers would turn on a dime for seemingly no reason.   Ayers would look at Lopez with a face that I read as "i'm trying, but I can't say the thing you want to hear".   He literally said "Steve Lopez is my God" and did not want to let him down.  I've been on both sides of this.  I've seen myself disintegrate, and I've watched others attach to me before I was ready.  I have had to just trust that others would understand, when I couldn't tell them what I needed or how much they meant.

 I'm not a music person.  Classical music does nothing for me. I feel uncomfortable when I watch the physical emotions that cellists display when they play, because I do not relate to it.  Keeping that in mind...  I loved the acting, because I didn't really think about it.  I am only now looking back at it.  I just felt moved by the characters.  I thought the scenes were beautifully shot. Particularly the scene where Nathaniel Ayers is lying on his "bed" in a hole in a building with rats and telling Steve Lopez about himself.

 I really knew that this movie was good, when I thought "Nicole, do not cry".  This is the scene when Nathaniel has been playing a 2-string violin in the tunnel, by the cars. By calling his family, Steve finds out that Nathaniel was originally a cellist.  Steve presents him with a cello, someone donated after seeing a story written about him in the paper.  He has one chance to play it in the tunnel, before it will be kept at a homeless shelter for safe keeping.  Nathaniel plays it. He plays a really slow somber sounding song. Foxx's face shows the emotion, and you know that this is someone doing something they never thought he would do again.  Previously, Ayers had babbled on about the cars driving by  and the pigeons in the  tunnel clapping for him.   After showing his expression, his fingers, and Steve hunched over with his arms above his head watching him, they show the pigeons.  They do appear to be applauding him.  They do represent what he has talked about through out the movie.  He wants to play for the city, he doesn't want to be secluded or crowded.  He wants the music to be played for everyone.   God, I hate admitting that the scene got me, but it did.  It doesn't matter how the movie begins or ends; it's a true story. This scene is why this was a fucking good movie, and they should just hand him the Oscar now.


For a different perspective on The Soloist please see  my jaded husband' blog.