Unusual story that turns out being just average on movie

Rating: 6/10 (6 February 2011)

Recap: By coincidence Steve Lopez, a journalist for the LA Times, meets Nathaniel Ayers Jr. a homeless man. What strikes Lopez as peculiar is that Nathaniel plays the violin, and he does it really well, despite the violin having just two strings. Lopez starts to do some research and finds out that Nathaniel was a prodigy, accepted to Julliard. But a mental breakdown forced him to quit, and has now left him homeless. Lopez and Ayers strikes a bond, builds a tentative friendship.
Comments: Based on a true story, the story of Nathaniel Ayers and his friendship with Steve Lopez is a peculiar one. Their friendship got its bumps, but that is natural, them coming from two extremely different viewpoints. But ultimately it is a story about beauty. Their friendship is beautiful, and the music that Nathaniel plays is beautiful. But if the true story is a peculiar one, the movie is pretty ordinary.
Both Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx are both good, solid veteran actors. And they give solid performances, what you could expect. But they do it individually, I don't really feel the real connection between them, as it must have been between Lopez and Ayers. And I think that is what carries this movie,, the bond between the two of them. And the movie becomes as good as I as a viewer can feel their bond. And it was good, but it wasn't much more than that.
What disturbs me a little is that this most unusual story is still told in a usual way. The movie takes its standard steps. The beginning, the tentative start, a brief period that goes well, a little honeymoon so to speak. Then comes the inevitable setback and at the end the resolve. Many, many movies uses these steps. They do for a reason, because it is safe, and moderately successful. But it seems unnecessary that such a unusual story like this should feel the need to use them. A little more inventive a creative narration would have been welcome.
Six cellos out of ten.