Don’t see this film solo

“The Soloist” has the perfect recipe for a feel-good movie: A down-on-his-luck writer finds the ideal story when he meets a mentally disturbed drifter with a gift for playing music, and the two end up improving each others’ lives.

Despite inspired acting and a touching true story, the film’s lone downfall is that it never reaches a satisfactory payoff.

Steve Lopez (Robert Downey Jr.) is a columnist for the L.A. Times in need of material for a good story. He finds the perfect human interest story when he comes across a homeless man named Nathaniel Ayers (Jamie Foxx) playing a two-stringed violin.

After some research, Lopez finds out that Ayers was once a cellist at the distinguished Julliard School of Music, and he strives to find out how the once-promising musician found his way to the streets.

One might initially question Lopez’s motivations for befriending Ayers, but we are left to speculate whether it is for the sake of his column or out of genuine concern for the gifted musician. The column was obviously a success and Lopez wrote a book about his subject, but over time, Lopez becomes something of a friend and guardian to Ayers.

The story is mainly about the meeting of two solitary people (“soloists” if you will) and their unlikely relationship, but it encompasses larger concerns such as living with mental illness and the problem of homelessness in Los Angeles.

Acclaimed director Joe Wright (“Atonement”) thrusts the audience into the harsh streets of L.A. and its homeless population as Lopez tries to set Ayers up in a homeless shelter.

A schizophrenic, Ayers is preoccupied with cleanliness, wears random and decadent costumes and mistrusts everyone. Foxx does a great job at portraying the unpredictability of the disorder, but you start to wonder if his ailment really ever bothered him.

Much like Russell Crowe’s character in “A Beautiful Mind,” it may have been Ayers’ mental illness that drove him to achieve such musical greatness. 

In the end, the question is: Why can’t Ayers’ musical career be revived? Does he not want it to be? For a Hollywood ending, this lack of resolution is problematic, but for a movie based on a depressingly true story, it is exactly what the story needs.