Production company: Joe Wright
Director: DreamWorks Pictures
Cast: Jamie Foxx, Robert Downey, Jr., Catherine Keener, Tom Hollander, Lisa Gay Hamilton
Rating: PG-13 for thematic elements, some drug use and language
By Gregg Tubbs
There’s nothing unusual about a successful writer and an accomplished musician being friends. But what if the musician was homeless and schizophrenic? What if the writer was disillusioned and a little dysfunctional himself? Now things are getting interesting. Finally, make their friendship truly transformational, with tantalizing glimpses of the divine. Now you’ve got the ingredients for a truly special story. And for the most part, The Soloist delivers on that promise. The film’s ace in the hole—or aces I should say—are a pair of exceptional performances by Robert Downey, Jr. and Jamie Foxx. When the two are on the screen struggling through a friendship that defies the odds, that’s all you really need.
Based on a true story, The Soloist is an emotionally charged drama about friendship, loyalty and the redemptive power of music. Steve Lopez (Robert Downey, Jr.), a Los Angeles Times columnist, discovers Nathaniel Anthony Ayers (Jamie Foxx) playing his violin on the streets of Los Angeles, and the two begin an emotional journey that transforms them both in unexpected ways. Joe Wright’s direction (Atonement) is, at times, over the top, but when he trusts the story—and especially his stars—The Soloist soars and haunts.
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Steve Lopez (Robert Downey, Jr.), a Los Angeles Times columnist, discovers Nathaniel Anthony Ayers (Jamie Foxx) playing his violin on the streets of Los Angeles, and the two begin an emotional journey that transforms them both in unexpected ways.
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Steve Lopez writes a column featuring “city stories” and local profiles, so he roams the streets to feel the pulse of the city and meet the characters living there. On one of his walks, he catches the strains of beautiful, mournful music coming from a nearby park and decides to investigate. There he finds Nathaniel in tattered clothes, sitting next to a cluttered shopping car and coaxing beautiful music out of a violin with only two strings. Lopez senses a story and stops to listen, then engages him in conversation. As Nathaniel begins to tell Lopez about his life, his jumbled, rapid-fire, stream-of-consciousness narrative keeps returning to God, Beethoven and the famous music school Julliard.
Lopez learns that Nathaniel had been a child prodigy, originally on the bass, who gained entry into the prestigious Julliard despite his humble, inner-city background. But just as his musical dreams were coming true, Nathaniel began hearing voices and experiencing fits of crippling fear and claustrophobia. His grades failing and his behavior becoming increasingly erratic, Nathaniel is eventually hospitalized and his career at Juilliard ends. Alone and schizophrenic, he eventually makes his way to sunny California where he can live year-round in the streets with his music for comfort. He explains to Lopez that he feels the presence of God as he plays in the open air, and for the first time in his life, Lopez feels that presence as well.
For Lopez, what begins as a simple need to find a subject for a story soon evolves into a friendship and a mission of reclamation. Strangely moved by this gifted but troubled homeless man, the wry and cynical journalist sets out to get Nathaniel off the streets.
Lopez’s own life has been a series of failures and disappointments. He is a failed husband and absent father, a disenchanted writer, and even an amusingly inept homeowner. Symbolically, his quest to help Nathaniel also becomes an attempt to prove he can enter into a selfless relationship and see it through.
Among the film’s strengths is the way in which it avoids easy answers and bravely explores the grey areas of life. We are left to ponder to what degree Lopez’s efforts really are selfless and to what degree they are meant to bolster his own self-esteem. Nor does the film idealize Nathaniel who is capable of great gentleness, but also prone to violent outbursts. At times, Lopez seems bullying in his attempts to get Nathaniel off the streets. All of this paints an unvarnished look at the challenges presented by mental illness—challenges Lopez may not be up to.
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Journalist Steve Lopez learns that Nathaniel had been a child prodigy, originally on the bass, who gained entry into the prestigious Julliard despite his humble, inner-city background. Copyright © 2009 DreamWorks Pictures.
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Most vividly, The Soloist explores the plight of those whom the Bible might call “the least, the last and the lost.” During Nathaniel’s brief stay at a homeless shelter (lured inside by a cello Lopez leaves there for him), Lopez’s eyes are opened. Like many of us, he had passed by the homeless every day, but never thought to stop and talk, to try to help. We’re left wondering if it were not for Nathaniel’s musical gifts, would Lopez have stopped. Are only the gifted worth helping? Or are they all, as Nathaniel points out, “children of God” and of sacred value and worth?
In the end, Lopez has probably been changed more than Nathaniel has. Although Nathaniel’s mental state may never improve and recovery is not assured, the important thing is that Lopez did not continue to walk past. He reached out to Nathaniel, offering his friendship, his comfort and his loyalty. And in so doing, he encountered the presence of God.
Study Questions
- How is The Soloist a spiritual film? In what ways is music spiritual and redemptive? Do you believe artistic abilities like Nathaniel’s are gifts from God?
- Do you see The Soloist as primarily a film about friendship, mental illness or homelessness? How does the film function on all these levels?
- Could you empathize with Lopez’s difficulties in coping with Nathaniel? Have you ever reached out to help someone whose problems seemed overwhelming at times?
- Lopez understood that he could never “cure” Nathaniel. Was he still right to try to help?
- How does the Bible commands us to help, comfort and minister to “the least, the last and the lost”? (See Matthew 25:39-41.)
- Lopez’s ex-wife defines what he sees in Nathaniel as “grace.” Do you agree? How do you define grace? How has your own life been touched by grace? Have you had a friendship that transformed your life?
- What did Nathaniel mean when he says of those staying in the homeless shelter: “These children of God will sleep well tonight, and dream like humans do”?
- In what way does the film affirm the essential humanity of the homeless and the mentally ill? How has the film influenced your thinking about the problem of mental illness and how society (and institutions) address (or fail to address) it?
- Did you ever feel that Lopez was helping Nathaniel against his will? Did he have the right to?
- How did Lopez change over the course of the film? How does he become a better person for having befriended Nathaniel? Did Nathaniel change? If so, how?
Resources
Official The Soloist site
Steve Lopez on Nathaniel Anthony Ayers
Theatrical Trailer
