The Soloist (DVD)

The victim of one of the worst marketing campaigns in recent memory, Joe Wright’s The Soloist would seem, judging from its trailer, to be nothing more than a trite TV of the week weepy about friendship and the redeeming power of music.

But Wright is too astute a director, and Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx too talented a pair of lead actors, for it to descend into melodramatic pap. Wright, for his part, is coming off the back of two esteemed literary adaptations (Pride and Prejudice and Atonement) and his approach in those informs this film: the outlook is classical (voiceover; flashbacks) but the sensibility is modern (the LA setting; themes of schizophrenia).

That duality seeps though everything, from the classically sweeping camerawork soaring over the city to the sound of Beethoven to the hand-held edgier conversations between Downey Jr’s journalist and Foxx’s homeless musician. The former is Steve Lopez (from whose book the film is adapted), an LA Times reporter who, after a bike accident, stumbles upon Foxx’ Nathaniel Ayers playing a two stringed violin. Delving into the history of this Julliard dropout, Lopez develops a kinship with the virtuoso, attempting to bring him back into the fold of modern life.

Wright’s quietly poignant film is a symphony of emotion in its own right, scored to the crescendo and diminuendo of life in LA. Beginning with a meeting between a journalist with a beaten up face and a schizophrenic musician with Stevie Wonder written on his ill fitting cap, it has the ebb and flow of Ayers’ favourite musician, Ludwig Van Beethoven. Dario Marianelli’s astute scoring, which experiments cleverly with various classical pieces, consequently becomes another major player, either rumbling in the lower registers or soaring to the tops of the tallest skyscrapers.

Downey Jr’s trademark babbling energy is a perfect fit for the slick journalist on the search for a scoop, while Foxx steers just clear of Rain Main territory by largely underplaying his character’s vocal tics. Thanks to the actors, what could have been a misfiring buddy picture becomes an inspiring, moving duet.   It’s not all plain sailing though, as the second half veers close to melodrama, and background players like Catherine Keener and Tom Hollander fade into anonymity.

Certain details of Susannah Grant’s screenplay are also bizarre (changing Lopez from a married to divorced man) but these are mere bum notes. Wright makes a wise decision in keeping Ayers’ flashback sequences believable while showing an earthy spontaneity in the on-location filming of LA’s homeless.

Overall Verdict: The film may not have done well at the cinema, but it reverberates like a grand symphony.

Special Features:
Commentary by Joe Wright
Deleted Scenes
‘An Unlikely Friendship - Making The Soloist’ Featurette
‘Juilliard’ Featurette

Reviewer: Sean Wilson