Going solo

The trailer for The Soloist – directed by Joe Wright – has being playing in theatres for the best part of a year now. Initially the idea of some moralising film about the normality and acceptability of individuals that are classified as abnormal struck a cord that was slightly trite and could possibly play out like a bunch of platitudes pushing acceptability and inclusiveness. But any good marketing scheme will get you to bite the bait and a years worth of trailer viewing seemed to justify actually viewing this film.

The Soloist touches upon quite a few issues; life in big urban environments, mental illnesses, dashed hopes of youth, the diminishing prominence of broadsheet journalism, tales from skid row and friendship. But a central theme is about people and their journey to a friendship and friendships restorative qualities. These qualities are not the sort that makes everything better, this film doesn’t take that rose tinted view of friendship but more the view that friendship can help ease the burden of our lives and help bring us out of ourselves and back into the world. The Soloist centres on the relationship that develops between Nathaniel Ayers (Jamie Foxx) and Steve Lopez (Robert Downey Jr.), the former a down on his luck musician and the later a journalist trying to pull his life together.

Foxx’s turn as the paranoid schizophrenic Nathaniel is understated and doesn’t try and shove abnormality in our face. When we first meet Nathaniel, and this is also when Lopez first meets him, his violin playing is swept in by a soft blowing wind. His playing is eloquent but constrained like a bird with clipped wings and when he speaks his conversation leads from one subject matter to another on a quick turn of a signifier that is pregnant and overloaded with meanings. This is the conversation of not a crazy man – although the film does make it clear that Nathaniel is tormented by distracting voices – but one who struggles to keep to a charted narrative flow. One can imagine Deleuze and Guattari nodding with approval to this schizo-analytical depiction of a schizophrenic individual. But Nathaniel’s talent as a musician is never in doubt; it is indeed the catalyst of inspiration for Lopez.

Lopez form this chance meeting is inspired to probe the back story of Nathaniel and find out how such a talented man can end up marooned in the tangled and thorny nest of Los Angeles skid row. Lopez is a populist writer and knows when he has struck gold and after Nathaniel’s hard luck story strikes a favourable cord with his readership Lopez decides to keep up reporting on the developments in Nathaniel’s life. This may seem cynical and opportunist, but Lopez does need stories to write, deadlines to meet and newspapers to sell: something of a reality of the economy. Through his exploration he is exposed to and does a small cartography of Los Angeles skid row, where sadly 90,000 homeless people live in squalid and over crowded conditions. It is here on skid row that Nathaniel and Lopez really touch each others lives and a bond starts to develop that is restorative.

There is deft direction from Wright, who it seems is shaping up to becoming a fine director. The film takes in many ideas whilst remaining focused on the two leads and the development of their relationship. Wright repeatedly shows Nathaniel’s fingers on the fingerboard of his instruments, dexterously moving around, drawing out a note, teetering on a precarious edge and searching for the next note. This dance of Nathaniel fingers is like the way we move through life, looking for our next move to continue the song of our lives. It’s on this note that Wright presents us with overhead shots of the L.A freeway system and the tangled confusion that it presents. As for Nathaniel, he is stuck in this confusing transportation confluence where his playing is his only solace. While our other lost soul Lopez, played with a warming delicacy by Downey, has a house in the hills but lives alone, has yet to unpack his boxes and settled into his new abode; his loneliness punctuated by the ‘no new messages’ update from his answering machine as he crashes into a makeshift bed after spending his day in hospital.

There is a telling scene that kicks off the second movement of the film. Nathaniel and Lopez are alone in the Disney Concert Hall with only the orchestra in front of them and they’re there to listen to the orchestra practice. As the conductor standing in front of the camera conjures up the music the camera moves past his shoulder and zooms in on the two men seated back in the hall. It is from this moment that the relationship that Lopez and Nathaniel have started to forge is tested. The film is littered with small touches, such as Lopez playing with his key, slapping on a beat up hat and Nathaniel’s feminisation of his cell or the personalisation of his cloths that open the characters and develop them into ordinary people from the city of Los Angeles.

And this is a story from Los Angeles and the trials that that particular city throws at its inhabitants. The film ends on a touching note where the camera pulls back to reveal the distance that Nathaniel and Lopez have travelled. The Soloist is most certainly a film with flaws, but they are only part of the films sum and this film does have a level headed and mature character that is captivating.