Oscar bait goes horribly awry
Image Courtesy of IMPawards.com
Director: Joe Wright
Notable Cast: Jamie Foxx, Tom Hollander, Catherine Keener, Robert Downey Jr.
After both Atonement and Pride & Prejudice became box office hits, and awards show candy, Joe Wright seemingly was on track to be the go-to director for period pieces. With his ability to use the big epic story in a proper context, Wright showed he perhaps might have a knack for the large costume pieces that some directors fall flat with. Which is why The Soloist is such an odd choice for him, as it’s a much more contained character piece .
Based on a series of columns from L.A Times writer Steve Lopez, the film follows Lopez (Robert Downey Jr.) and his burgeoning friendship with Nathaniel Ayers (Jamie Foxx). Bruised and bloodied from a bike accident, he meets Nathaniel playing the violin on two strings better than most could will all of them. Nathaniel is also homeless and schizophrenic, leading to him becoming a pet project of sorts for Lopez. After a series of columns written on his fall from Julliard’s school of music, Lopez and Ayers have a weird bonding of sorts that leads to Lopez trying to get Ayers to help his situation. And while the columns and book they were collected in are fascinating material, the film itself fails because Wright is the wrong director for it.
He’s a director of big epic shots and large stories and this material is seemingly too intimate for him. While you can argue that both of his prior films are tales of two people separated by events of their time, Wright is out of his expertise with this film. There are stylistic differences, as the film tries to use L.A as a backdrop for some sweeping shots (including an underrated crane shot from Ayers and Lopez in a tunnel underneath the city to the L.A skyline) but he never gets a sense of the story. Ayers is a man with many problems and Lopez is a man trying to help him; Wright really never lets us into their world and by that never gives us a reason why.
It’s a shame because he has pair of Academy Award level performances from Foxx and Downey. They earn every dollar they were paid for the film. They’re two of the better actors of their generation and elevate the material; in the hands of anyone else it’d seem perfunctory. Downey has a bit of a tougher job than Foxx, who seemingly apes Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man to a certain extent, but both give nuanced performances that keep you involved in the story. For a film that has no idea how to really get across Ayers’ schizophrenia, Foxx’s performance keeps us grounded as to how troubled he is. Conversely Downey gives us another great performance about a man trying to help someone truly in need of it.
The Soloist was thought of as Oscar bait, then moved into the spring for a number of reasons. While it’s thought it didn’t want to be distracting for Downey’s Oscar nominated work in Tropic Thunder, it’s easier to see that it wasn’t up to the level of quality one expects from a film geared towards awards.
FINAL RATING (ON A SCALE OF 1-5 BUCKETS):
