Saturday
Apr252009
Review: The Soloist, B-
Saturday, April 25, 2009 at 10:39PM via latimes.com
This evening I saw The Soloist starring Jamie Fox and Robert Downy Jr. I rarely write movie reviews, but something about this film caused me to create this quick post.
I had not heard of Nathanial Anthony Ayers till this movie and I knew nothing of the LA Times articles from Steve Lopez. So this was a clean slate for me.
I'm also a sucker for the autobiographical films/books and tend to like many, if not all of them (Ray, Cinderella Man, Beautiful Mind, Georgiana, etc). Furthermore, I love films that are centered are music. But oddly enough, halfway through this film I felt a disconnect.
The acting was superb, but how could it be anything less than spectacular? I was beginning to feel the gravity of this true story was minimized.
Why did I not feel the emotion? Why didn't I connect with the characters? The only thing I could pinpoint was the screenplay. Was the script "hollywood-ized"? The answer is yes, and as I would soon find out, the liberties taken by the Director were clearly the wrong ones.
After the movie I read the review from the Los Angeles Times, and suddenly I began to understand why I had trouble with the film. As the article mentions, the psychedelic light show was not necessary (in the scene where Nathanial visits the symphony for the first time) -- and that's just one of the many little items I that bothered me.
The final nail in the coffin was the 60 Minutes piece above that I watched when I got home. It fills in the missing gaps! There's the emotion I wanted to feel for Nathanial. There's the understanding I was looking for in his plight. For me, this 14 minute piece from Morley Safer was much more touching and thorough than the movie. I'm fine with dramatization, but why didn't we see Nathanial visiting Steve's home and family? Why didn't we see the shock therapy, as mentioned in 60 Minutes?
For all it's faults, this is a movie that is worth seeing purely to support Mr. Ayers and Mr. Lopez -- and to that extent Mr. Downey Jr. and Mr. Foxx. But I can't help but think how much greater impact this film could have had on the plight of the homeless in LA and schizophrenia.
I'm left aching to read the original LA Times articles by Steve Lopez and his book.
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Reader Comments (4)
I was afraid that such an urban miracle of a story would have its spirit quashed in a most unfortunate way by the big budget enterprise... :(
We have scarily similar taste in films, this has been established...but I don't know if I can muster the strength to go see it when you've already doomed it as "disconnected", even though I, like yourself, love biopics like "The Duchess", "Ray", et cetera. To me, "disconnected" is almost a worse fate than "bad acting" or "bad writing", because the former means that they *almost* got it, but just couldn't get it to the point where it was supposed to be to create a stellar piece of movie magic.
Thanks for the review, and furthermore, thanks for pinpointing the issue with the film. Glad you enjoyed the linkage.
i was so looking forward to this i guess i will wait for dvd.
When I first saw the previews for this film I was worried that they would be manipulative and try and exploit the situation. There's that whole thing in Hollywood where the Oscars are given to the actors who play "damaged" people and this movie looked like an attempt to cash in on that phenomenon.
Ironically, Robert Downey Jr. even spoofed that whole thing in Tropic Thunder, "Everybody knows you never go full retard!"
BTW, I don't think you mean "autobiographical," just "biographical."
You're spot on that this is a complex and eye-opening story that has been disintegrated by Hollywood. I've read Mr. Lopez's columns on Nathaniel and subsequently the book. You definitely should do the same to really digest both the talents of Nathaniel Ayers and Steve Lopez.
Two weeks ago, there was a stand-alone insert for The Soloist in the LA Times Sunday copy. In it, Steve Lopez provides some of his insight on the film. Though he liked the movie, there was concern regarding story aspects that were removed from the film. Pretty evident from movie reviews so far.
Read the columns and book - very much worth your while.