Now on DVD: “The Soloist”
August 8, 2009 by Jeanne Dupuis
Filed under Movies
Robert Downey Jr. may have made a major comeback in movies like Iron Man and Tropic Thunder but he also decided to take on The Soloist, a film that definitely tested his more serious acting abilities.
image: Dreamworks SKG
The movie is based on a true story in which Downey plays Los Angeles Times columnist, Steve Lopez, who, after a bicycle accident is injured both physically and emotionally. He scours the city looking for a news story and ends up discovering Nathaniel Ayers (Jamie Foxx) a brilliant musician who was stricken with schizophrenia in his second year at Julliard. His struggle with mental illness leaves him playing the cello and violin on the streets of downtown L.A.
Lopez decides to write a series of articles about him in an effort to raise awareness about the realities of homelessness and some of the surprising reasons for it but soon realizes that helping Ayers is about a lot more than finding him a home – schizophrenia is a complex disease and it’s not well understood by society at large. The film takes the pair on an unlikely journey as they attempt to find a brighter future for them both.
