"Very heartfelt, very true, and great acting. Don't pass this one up."

Rating: 7/10 (1 February 2010)

On a Sunday afternoon I found myself rummaging through the HBO on-demand offerings. I past over 'The Soloist' a couple of times only remembering the first time I tried to watch it when I fell asleep before the end of the first act. My fiancé sat beside me when I found nothing else to watch, and decided to give Jamie Foxx as Nathanial Anthony Ayers Jr. another try. The first 30 minutes felt familiar as I remembered the opening scenes. I instantly became sucked into the story.
Steve Lopez (Downey Jr.) is a columnist of the LA Times who is in desperate need of story. Out wandering around LA, Lopez heres the soft music of a violin with only 2 strings. There he finds the Julliard dropout, Nathanial Ayers (Foxx). Somewhat hard to follow at times, Ayers explains parts of his past to Lopez over several days. Lopez writes of Ayers and one of his readers respond. Lopez is sent a like-new cello to give to Ayers. Steve Lopez sets up a place for Nathanial to play and be safe. Over the next several months, Lopez tries to get into Ayers' head and find the source of the his assumed mental illness.
The two main characters, Ayers & Lopez, often are seen clicking like best friends and at other times tugging back and forth of the simplest of subjects. Downey Jr. and Foxx fit into these roles perfectly. Their on screen chemistry makes me want more movies just like this.
As this movie is based on the real life story of the two main characters, it is almost exactly adapted from the book written by Steve Lopez. This book entitled The Soloist: A Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship, and the Redemptive Power of Music, was written about Lopez's encounters with Ayers during his column writing.
Very heartfelt, very true, and great acting. Don't pass this one up.
MOOvie News score: 7.5/10 http://moovienews.com