Jamie Foxx might come off as an arrogant bastard but he has the right to be one and The Soloist shows us why. He plays Nathaniel Ayers, a homeless Julliard-trained musician. Based on a true story, it’s about how a talented person such as Ayers can be homeless and how a newspaper columnist changed his life.
Robert Downey Jr. plays Steve Lopez, a newspaper columnist who found Ayers playing beautiful music while looking for something interesting to write about. Little did he know that not only did he found a subject for his column, he also found a friend.
Both Foxx and Downey portrayed their characters the best way they can. The characters were carefully developed and you can feel how their relationship grew through the course of the movie. At first I thought that it would be all about Ayers but it turned out that it also focused on Lopez and how Ayers changed him.
Besides Foxx and Downey, Ayers’ schizophrenia takes center stage in The Soloist. They didn’t sugarcoat anything about his condition. He didn’t get better and rejoined society. Instead society accepted him for what he is.
Steve Lopez (Robert Downey Jr.): I’ve never loved anything the way he loves music.
This is the beauty of The Soloist. In the beginning Nathaniel Ayers only has music to turn to until he found a friend named Steve Lopez. I’ve never been a fan of Jamie Foxx nor Robert Downey Jr. but The Soloist turned me into one. I can say that The Soloist is one of the best honest movies I’ve seen recently.
