The Soloist
with Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr.
Jamie Foxx never really becomes a ‘soloist’ in this flick but he does wear some pretty outrageous outfits! I mean it…Who thinks of this stuff? Were the designs taken from the descriptions in the book (by Steve Lopez)?? I don’t know as I didn’t read the book. Actually Mr. Foxx plays a pretty convincing homeless person who is unable to fulfill his passionate dream of performing Beethoven even after a couple of years of study at Julliard… ‘Cause he is nuts! Clinically speaking, that is, and hears voices and can’t conform to any societal expectations. Mr. Downey Jr. discovers the homeless man’s talent by accident and mentors the musician. RDJr. plays the part of the real-life newspaper columnist who wrote the book upon which the movie is based. They both are believable characters and the script is kinda real-ish. It might be a little bit preachy but not distractingly so.
I love movies with musical themes. Mr. What’s His Names Opus, Amadeus, Yellow Submarine…Yankee Doodle Dandy, etc. (obviously it doesn’t take much to fit into my ‘classifications’) and I got a kick out of the music. The psychedelic interpretation of a schizoid’s rapture while listening to Beethoven-not so much. So I just closed my eyes during that part of the movie and dug the philharmonic. Not bad. Many of the depictions of homeless people and the conditions they live in reminded me of Shawn of the Dead (Zombie=Homeless) but, again, not too over the top.
I wish I could be a little more positive about this movie. Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr. are good actors but dressing Foxx up like Elton John made it difficult to take the unwashed, homeless man real seriously. The script tried to handle too many social and personal issues all at once. Homelessness (the cops, the politicians, the social workers…), dwindling newspaper readership, RDJr’s personal problems with commitment, etc. It all got a little muddled, but it was still entertaining. I give this movie two cheap beers.
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