Review: 'Soloist' Tugs Too Hard At Heartstrings

'The Soloist' (PG-13)(out of four)

"The Soloist" tugs hard at your heartstrings -- sometimes almost too much. There's the homeless genius musician who could have been great before a mental illness crept into his brain; and then there's the newspaper columnist who messed up his marriage over the devotion to his career and his need for public adoration.

And finally, there's the sad plight of the homeless, 90,000 of them alone in Los Angeles, who have no help and nowhere to go.

All of this could leave you feeling, by the end of the movie, like you've been manipulated, but there are a few saving graces in "The Soloist" despite it still ending up being a Hollywood heart robber.

In 2005, Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez started a story about a homeless man named Nathaniel Ayers. After spending time around the man and discovering the real plight of the urban homeless, he ended up truly caring about his subjects, even bringing attention to local officials about their story.

"The Soloist" doesn't so much bring that tale out in the open: yes, it touches on it a bit, but it's more about character studies and in this case, it becomes Hollywood A-listers creating these character studies and us watching their craft, which becomes laborious for the audience, almost draining.

Robert Downey Jr. continues to cement his place as the comeback kid, and Jamie Foxx digs his heels further into some serious character studies such as we saw in his Oscar winning performance of "Ray." It turns "The Soloist" into a showcase for the two actors.

The problem is, you don't feel like you've inhabited the soul of the players as much as you've watched them try to earn Oscar nominations. Joe Wright ("Pride and Prejudice," "Atonement") directs the film from a script by Susannah Grant ("Erin Brockovich"). Not surprisingly, the movie's gloss feels like "Pride and Prejudice" while the conversations of these supposedly "real" people have the predictable banter of "Erin Brockovich."

If you can put all that aside and revel in the story of how these two men meet, what they learn from each other and what those around them take away from their friendship, "The Soloist" works on some level.

Wright gives us some great moments to relish, including a scene where Lopez sets up a private audience seat for Ayers so that he can watch the symphony rehearse at Walt Disney Concert Hall.

When Ayers doesn't want to leave his shopping cart filled with his most prized possessions (items we see as junk, including a broom, blankets, a red, white and blue Uncle Sam hat), Lopez has got to get him to the concert hall on time. So the pair drags the cart across the streets of L.A., parking it in front of the hall. And Wright's use of real faces as some of the homeless offers more honesty.

Of course, there are some not-so- great moments. The inclusion of the fictional editor/ex-wife of Lopez (Catherine Keener), goes nowhere, especially a scene where she embarrasses Lopez at an awards dinner.

Anyone in the industry or any corporation will also question the conflict of interest of a columnist's editor a la ex wife. Could she conceivably be allowed to be his boss? As hard as Keener tries, she never creates chemistry with Downey and she only comes off as another in a series of divorced wives who nag their ex-husband's about not calling the kids.

The most tedious moment in the movie arrives when Ayers and Lopez sit in the concert hall to listen to a Beethoven symphony, and Wright pummels us with minutes upon minutes of a dizzying array of colors shooting off the screen like a laser light show.

Apparently, we're supposed to be put into the mind of Ayers as the symphony explodes in front of him, but for moviegoers it's probably a good time for a bathroom break. You won't miss anything.

Foxx's performance as Ayers is giddy like "Rain Man" and puzzling like "I Am Sam." Try as he might to muster up originality in bringing freshness to the host of Hollywood characters who have had to play mentally disabled before him, it seems a bit forced.

No doubt Foxx, and even Downey, will earn Oscar nominations and perhaps even get the award, and that's not to say they shouldn't, because the real Nathaniel Ayers and the real Steve Lopez truly deserve to have their story told to the masses.

Theirs is a marvelous pairing brought to light, it's just that sometimes the director's light shines more brightly than the heartlight of this story.