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Issue date: 4/30/09 Section: Arts & Entertainment

Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr. star in the new movie 'The Soloist,' which opened April 25. Photo used with permission.

"The Soloist" is about homeless, schizophrenic Julliard drop-out Nathaniel Aires (Jamie Foxx), who is discovered by journalist Steve Lopez (Robert Downey Jr.), who strikes up a conversation with him because his curiosity is sparked by the fact that Aires is playing the violin on the street. Lopez wants to write a story about Aires for his failing newspaper, but he ends up being interested in Aires on a more personal level.

The previews for "The Soloist" make it seem sensational and beautiful and heartwarming-the kind of movie that will bring you to tears by the closing scene. The movie is not exactly what the previews make it out to be. It is certainly a great movie, but it is not the formulaic heartwarming movie that the preview makes it seem like.

Actually, "The Soloist" is not really heartwarming at all-and that's what makes it so great. It doesn't have a sickly sweet happy ending. It doesn't shove an asinine, obvious message down your throat, such as "Hey guys, go help your local schizophrenic homeless dude today!" "The Soloist" is simply real. Lopez's character doesn't "fix" Aires' character; he doesn't make him all better-because that's not how reality works. The movie includes no grand message about how to help the homeless or the mentally ill-because, here on planet Earth, there is no permanent or easy-fix solution to those problems.

"The Soloist," possibly because it is grounded in reality, draws a lot of empathy out of its viewers. Jamie Foxx's performance as Nathaniel Aires is amazing. Since mental illness is so misunderstood, and seems to be something that nobody can truly understand until they've been there, I didn't expect Foxx's acting to be so great. But he really captured what it must feel like to be mentally ill. He made it easy to feel sympathetic towards Aires and his illness-and, due to that, certain parts of the movie tugged on my heartstrings quite a bit.

The direction of the movie, by Joe Wright, was also amazing. Wright does an outstanding job of making the viewer feel what it's like to be schizophrenic and hear voices. Wright also does a spectacular job of conveying Aires' love of music. With a slideshow of beautiful psychedelic colors on the screen in the middle of the movie, Wrights shows the viewer what it feels like to be in Aires' mind when he his playing the violin, the love for the art of music radiating throughout his entire being.

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