Too bad!

Rating: 6/10 (19 December 2009)

I was totally enthralled with the book of the same name, culled from the columns of Steve Lopez of the Los Angeles Times. I was surprised when the making of the movie was announced, I wondered how on earth this would translate to a watchable and engaging film.
Well I found out. I thought Peter Wright might better his work in "Atonement" and give us a serious interpretation of the book.
Some key elements of the book went missing along the way. Steve is on his second marriage for one and the loving parent of a small daughter. The fact that Steve brings Nathaniel home to meet his wife and daughter were hugely significant to me, to see this man of the streets interact with a child in a private home. A beautiful scene in the book. Absent completely from the screen. Instead we get an ex-marriage of some kind with Catherine Keener playing Catherine Keener, I'm not knocking the performance for she does it extremely well.
There is the man in a vacuum role perfected so well by Robert Downey Jr.) and the music is sublime except when in an effort to fill in screen time not occupied by the transported faces of the stars, gets filled with the type of flashing graphics available on any download of RealPlayer.
The thing is, I wasn't engaged with most of it, like I was with the book. I did engage with the homeless who portrayed themselves and wonderfully well but the humanitarian intent swallows it whole. 2 X 4s in movies are not a good thing.
The flashbacks were oddly placed and irritating. And actually we could have done without them. The friendship is developed slowly, I really admired the way that Steve is transformed more than Nathaniel. Jamie Foxx is adequate in portraying Nathaniel but he left me oddly unaffected unlike his Ray Charles which was so satisfying.
I believe the story arc would have been better served with Steve's POV more fully explored (i.e. his marriage was jeopardized by his attachment to Nathaniel).
Seamus McGarvey's cinematography was superb. He really does capture the gritty streets, homeless shelters and chaos of LA's underbelly.
6 out of 10 for the effort. Save your money. Read the book, forget the film.