Ok, so when “The Soloist” received the bad news that it was being pushed into 2009, we got curious. What was so bad about this seemingly-Oscar bait-ready film that made it not worthy of a Academy Awards qualifying run in 2008?
So we checked in and found ourselves a copy of the script written by Susannah Grant based on the non-fiction novel by L.A Times writer Steve Lopez. We were never quite convinced with “The Soloist” to begin with: the concept seemed a little hokey, the trailer seemed treacly and overall, it had an air of overt sentimentality to it.
Yet outside the subplot with Lopez’s wife (which we’ll get to in a second) and second-act complications which felt a little rote, we thought “The Soloist” was mostly well handled, thoughtful and a surprisingly decent little script. Of course what ends up on screen can be different, but this is what we derived from what was on the page.
Note: fans of the fifth season of “The Wire” might enjoy this one too, as the film is anchored by the Los Angeles Times newsroom undergoing the same kind of “do more with less” crisis that seems to be inflicting all paper media.
Robert Downey Jr. stars as Steve Lopez, a L.A Times columnist who is well-read, yet loved and loathed in equal measure. A family man, he is more than a little self-obsessed with his writing gig (as most good journos unfortunately are) and is constantly on the hunt for his next column idea. He takes a nasty spill by on his bike on a blind curve — vehicles and cyclists can’t co-exist? And it becomes a story. His life and work are virtually one in the same at all times. He is constantly writing, in his head, into his recorder, onto a pad of paper.
The next day back at work, feeling woozy from the painkiller
medication, he takes refuge in a local concrete city park where he hears a strange noise emanating from further down a bench. He sees a homeless man feverishly playing away on a two-stringed violin. Hypnotized from his playing, he approaches the tentative man – he is Nathaniel Anthony Ayers Jr. (Jamie Foxx). It’s page 7 and their meeting is unremarkable and serendipitous at the same time, like most screenplays are.
Nathaniel mentions Julliard classmates which kicks Steve’s brain into
high gear again – this could be a column, but calls to the prestigious
school turn up nothing, so Steve moves on and chases other leads.
Eventually, Julliard realizes their mistake having looked only through
graduate students. And shortly thereafter Lopez fortuitously comes
across Nathaniel while driving to work, the homeless schizophrenic
playing in a tunnel oblivious to the cars whizzing dangerously close.
They meet again and during their disjointed conversation, Nathaniel sputters mumbo jumbo that alternately fascinated and annoys the newswriter (“Reign Over Me,” “Fischer King” and other friendship and mentally disability tales immediately come to mind).
As Downey’s Steve Lopez gets closer and closer to the unpredictable and homeless prodigy, he starts become unhealthily obsessed, neglecting his wife and daughter and using the immersion of his new found friend as a welcome distraction from his ailing paper that is losing colleagues at an alarming rate due to buyouts and staff cuts.
He finds Nathaniel’s sister in Cleveland and updates her on his whereabouts progress – she is shocked to hear about him its been almost a decade since she’s heard a word of him.
As the newspaper business dies in front of his eyes, Lopez dives his head into the sand by escaping into Nathaniel’s life; trying to get him help at a local homeless shelter, scoring him a one-off gig and eventually getting the hyper reluctant schizophrenic an apartment building so he can take violin lessons to hone his craft that’s wild and undisciplined, but brimming with superstar potential.
The popularity of Steve’s many columns on the mentally ill musician develop a rabid fan base and become far-reaching. Free violins and cellos from the public for Lopez to give to his friend are constantly pouring in, and the articles soon get Nathaniel access to a private rehearsal of the L.A. philharmonic, which becomes almost like a spiritual pilgrimage and a religious experience. But all the while Steve becomes and more disgruntled with his job via his sleep-deprived obsession.
Throughout, the story flashes back to Nathaniel’s life as he mentally unraveled and became increasingly more disturbed and ill – his time at Julliard, when he first began hearing voices, his dropping out of school and getting kicked out of his parents house for hurting the family dog, and his eventual move from Cleveland to Los Angeles to locate a father that wants nothing to do with him.
During all this period Steve’s home life becomes more estranged and he takes to drinking at home which alienates his wife all the more. She asks for basic family time which he takes as nagging harassment which
only escalates as the story progresses. This subplot seems very “Reign Over Me,” in the similar (and predictable) ways that Don Cheadle neglects his family and bypasses his personal problems, by spending an inordinate amount of time with Adam Sandler’s disturbed character.
Eventually the two relationships are negotiated and a fine balance is struck, but there’s a bit of a shrill quality to this detour that seems half-baked and not as strong as the rest of the script; a second-act “increasing difficulty” for the sake of a second-act increasing difficulty. The drinking aspect seems a little forced.
To get too much into the rest of the screenplay is to spoil it, (not that are any more twists; at this point you know where it’s going) but the relationship between Lopez and Ayers is a believable one, and one with mutual respect, compassion and affection and it’s their connection that really drives the story and makes you stick with it. The death-of-journalism themes (again, very 5th-season ‘Wire’) are obvious second-act conflicts, but they feel incredibly real and a palpable reason to want to escape your problems (but again, the alcoholism theme that seems to pop out of nowhere needs work).
Overall, “The Soloist,” is a lot sharper and enjoyable than we would have imagine and the motor-mouthed, incisive Robert Downey Jr. seems like a perfect casting choice as the lead. The story is inspirational without feeling, Hollywood’s uplifting, so it’s anyone’s guess why this smart, and strong chronicle of odd friendship was seemingly dismissed as not up to Academy snuff.
