The Soloist

Warning – Spoilers ahead.

Robert Downey Jr plays Steve Lopez, a LA Times reporter who’s always on the lookout for an interesting new story. He writes about his injury and treatment after a bicycle accident, life in the bad part of town etc. When he stumbles across Nathaniel (Jamie Foxx) playing flawless Beethoven on a violin with only two strings, he is intrigued. He follows up and discovers that he had gone to Julliard for musical training but dropped out due to his diagnosis of schizophrenia. He begins writing about him and quickly befriends the strange character.

Both Robert Downey Jr and Jamie Foxx play their characters to near perfection and the film takes its time in developing the relationship between the two. They put in powerful performances and this film will be an Oscar contender next year. The best thing about the film is that there is no sugarcoating or quick fix. Lopez and Ayer’s relationship goes through its ups and downs and by the end of the film, Ayers is doing better, but hasn’t suddenly conquered his schizophrenia to rejoin society and begin writing screenplays.

[youtube] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrrLJT4YS9I [/youtube]

http://www.soloistmovie.com/

9 out of 10