Stars:
**
Rating: PG-13 for
language, intensity and mature themes
Run
Time: 1
hour, 57 minutes
This
mawkish melodrama’s reedy charms can be summed up in three simple words: Robert
Downey, Jr.
Downey is
Steve Lopez, an intrepid
LA columnist with fancy digs, a high-profile divorce and an empty soul. That
changes - or does it - when Lopez happens upon a homeless violin player named
Nathaniel Ayers (Jamie Foxx), a musical genius and dyed-in-the-wool
schizophrenic. A former cello prodigy from Julliard, Ayers was forced to leave
the program because he couldn't turn off the voices in his head.
For
Lopez this spells story with a capital S. He digs deep into Ayers’ life,
contacting family and former friends and offering the reluctant recluse the
kind of exposure he doesn't need or want.
Director
Joe Wright serves up a hornet’s nest of mixed messages - on one hand the steep
price of charity and the other a poignant homage to those felled by mental
illness. Or ruminations on the evils of greed vs. a bitter expose on the plight
of the homeless.
On
the whole “Soloist” is a staged affair, a glossy awards contender (mysteriously
pushed back from December to April) that desperately seeks a visceral reaction
to its inherent dramas.
No
denying that Downey is the real deal, his quirky charisma, chiseled good looks
and concentrated scrabble up a slippery ethical slope go a long way to righting
the wrongs of a hyper-sentimental screenplay. Foxx plays Ayers “Rain Man”
style, all stream of consciousness and mad hatter dialogue. Story loses its
footing by lingering too long (a lost colony of broken souls at a community for
the emotionally impaired) or too fleetingly (why is Lopez divorced from his
co-working ex played with lovely nuance by Catherine Keener) on elemental
themes. Flashbacks are poorly executed but do fill in some blanks.
Production
is a beauty; a high resolution love affair with the upside of LA and its more
sinister underbelly. Frankly I expect more from Wright whose previous outings
(“Atonement”, “Pride & Prejudice”) hit all the right notes. “Soloist” is a
pitchy affair that ultimately misses its mark.