The Soloist

2009. Dir: Joe Wright. Starring: Jamie Foxx, Robert Downey Jr., Catherine Keener, Tom Hollander and Lisa Gay Hamilton. ●●○○○



After a couple of false starts - one cancelled night out and a trip to see Dorian Gray - I managed to persuade the rest of the cast to see The Soloist. With the benefit of hindsight I wish I hadn't bothered. It's not that it's a bad film, not really really bad, indeed there is much to commend it. More than that it's deeply disappointing, the combination of talent should havr combined to a much greater whole than witnessed here.



The film charts the relationship between Steve Lopez - columnist for the L.A. Times - and Nathaniel Ayers former Julliard prodigy now homeless and, possibly, pyschizophrenic played by Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx respectively. In the main the film plays from Lopez's perspective as he builds the story from a chance encounter during lunch break and realises that the adoration he inspires in Ayers is a front for deeper personal and societal problems. It is Lopez's story in that he is the character we follow home to his raccoon infestation and failed marriage. Occasionally we get extended flashbacks to Ayer's youth or bizarre glimpses into his subconcious.

Strangely this concept felt like the best way of adapting this story - tellingly Lopez is a columnist not a journalist - he is his own story. This distances Foxx's character to such an extent that we feel short changed on his performance and when Wright looks at his mental processes creatively (such as an extended light display during a concert rehearsal) it seems like only half the story; like the creative team didn't have the courage to finish what they started.

This confused tone is symptomatic of the issues I had with this movie. Both Donwey Jr. and Foxx are clearly putting in terrific performances but their either too smug or held at arms length to such an extent that I felt nothing for them.

Technically the film was merely proficient, but I would like to commend Jacqueline Durrand's costuming (Atonement, Vera Drake), especially for Foxx's variety of idiosyncratic regalia which must have been both a nightmare to organise, as well as being a pleasureable challenge.

Ultimately less than the sum of it's parts my overall impression was that all concerned could and should do so much better.