My first thoughts when this movie started were of the movie "Resurrecting the Champ" with Josh Hartnett and Samuel L. Jackson. That was an excellent movie about a Denver reporter who thought he stumbled upon a former heavyweight champ who was now homeless. That was also based upon a true story.
In "The Soloist" Steven Lopez (Robert Downey Jr.) is a reporter for the L. A. Times who stumbles upon a former Julliard School cellist. Lopez decides to write a human interest piece about this now homeless man named Nathaniel Ayers (Jamie Foxx). The article, which ran serially, garnered Lopez and Ayers a lot of attention. Lopez, in a very demanding way, wanted to turn Ayers' life around for the better as though it was something he had to do and something Ayers had to accept. But Ayers wasn't homeless because he simply had bad breaks or a drug addiction.
Ayers had serious psychological problems, and dealing with a person with mental and psychological problems is not easy as Lopez found out the hard way.
"The Soloist" takes a harder look at homelessness than any movie I've ever seen. This is a problem that hits very close to home for me as I live near San Francisco which is probably now the homeless capital of the country. Ayers was just one type of homeless case--a very gifted individual with a psychological handicap keeping him from a normal life.
This movie is very depressing though it is realistic. You want Ayers to find that something to make him whole, make him right, and make him no longer homeless, but how can someone find what they're not looking for, especially when he doesn't trust those trying to guide him to it? It's a conundrum. "The Soloist" doesn't promise a happy ending, but it promises a real ending.
In "The Soloist" Steven Lopez (Robert Downey Jr.) is a reporter for the L. A. Times who stumbles upon a former Julliard School cellist. Lopez decides to write a human interest piece about this now homeless man named Nathaniel Ayers (Jamie Foxx). The article, which ran serially, garnered Lopez and Ayers a lot of attention. Lopez, in a very demanding way, wanted to turn Ayers' life around for the better as though it was something he had to do and something Ayers had to accept. But Ayers wasn't homeless because he simply had bad breaks or a drug addiction.
Ayers had serious psychological problems, and dealing with a person with mental and psychological problems is not easy as Lopez found out the hard way.
"The Soloist" takes a harder look at homelessness than any movie I've ever seen. This is a problem that hits very close to home for me as I live near San Francisco which is probably now the homeless capital of the country. Ayers was just one type of homeless case--a very gifted individual with a psychological handicap keeping him from a normal life.
This movie is very depressing though it is realistic. You want Ayers to find that something to make him whole, make him right, and make him no longer homeless, but how can someone find what they're not looking for, especially when he doesn't trust those trying to guide him to it? It's a conundrum. "The Soloist" doesn't promise a happy ending, but it promises a real ending.