Foxx is terrific...

Rating: 7/10 (18 May 2020)

This is a truly super performance from Jamie Foxx as the virtuoso musician (Nathanial Ayers) who lives his life on the streets of Los Angeles. He is "discovered" by LA Times journalist Steve Lopez (Robert Downey Jr.) who is seeking a theme for his column - and his subsequent probing into his new subject discovers that Mr. Ayers suffers from a acute form of schizophrenia that renders his ability to rationalise his thoughts and or skills into anything that could enable him to use his musical talents to escape his predicament all but impossible. As ever with RD films, the pace of the dialogue is frenetic and here is actually quite distracting from the subtle and poignant efforts from Foxx - the story works best when it is told from his perspective, and though I cannot vouch for the authenticity of the actual effects upon the real man, the fact that it is based on a true story does incline me to consider that this representation of Ayers' battle against his own demons could be a true reflection of the actual difficulties faced by a man of such magnificent talents, but with so many equally mammoth psychological problems. The score from Dario Marianeli serves to accompany the mood of the film - at a variety of paces - magnificently, too.