The Soloist

By Callum Brown

 

The Soloist tells the true story of the journalist Steve Lopez and Nathaniel Ayers, Ayers is a homeless man with an amazing talent, he plays both the violin and Cello amazingly, however Ayers is also an undiagnosed paranoid schizophrenic. Making Lopez’s mission to help him very difficult. It’s a story of friendship more than anything else, and opens our eyes to how many homeless people live in Los Angeles and how hard their lives are.

As Lopez tries relentlessly to help Ayers, getting him an apartment, Cello lessons, even a concert, Ayers’ unpredictable and often violent nature takes a hold on their relationship, both actors (Robert Downey Jr and Jamie Fox) deliver stella performances but its Fox’s performance as Ayers that really makes the piece heartfelt. The film often uses sound in imaginative ways, combining it with surreal imagery to display Ayers’ love for Beethoven, the director has a unique take on the representation of music and what it means to Ayers, and uses it as an almost godly power that he reaches for and is desperate to understand, Ayers’ personality switches from lovable and gentle, to surprisingly violent in the slightest second and displays the effects of schizophrenia amazingly mostly through sound and these drastic changes of emotion.

Downey’s role as the hard working friend of Ayers is were what we relate to in this film, nobody could Blame his character for leaving Ayers at anytime due to his erratic and sometimes selfish behaviour, but instead of giving up he always seem to find a way to help Ayers in a way that he understands. The film always keep with its realistic tone but can often be shocking, the street ‘Skid Row’ is done with extreme realism and can often be seen as enjoyable or frightening, yet always feel like the same place, and we never doubt that all these people call it home.

The film gets many things right, and everything seems understandable and genuine, but I never got a strong feeling of emotion throughout it, which I was surprised at, as I love Downey as an actor, and find addictions and illnesses like Schizophrenia really interesting, so I don’t quite know what it was missing for me to really like it. The fact that it is a true troy is interesting, but nothing really amazing comes out of it, there’s a homeless man with an amazing talent who’s given many chances but it never really comes to flourish, it all seems rather disappointing but then again sometimes films based on true stories will be, as if they changed things, they would loose the essence that makes them intriguing.