Reviews by Matt

“Oscar bait” is a word many may not be familiar with. It means any movie that seems like it is trying for an Oscar. That is how I felt from the second I watched the trailer for “The Soloist.” Here is what is confusing about that thought. It was released the last week in April. This past weekend is essentially a dumping ground for movies. The summer movies start this weekend, “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” anyone? So why would a movie that is trying for an Oscar released on a weekend that is the armpit of the movie season?

Steve Lopez (Robert Downey Jr.) is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times. One day he meets Nathaniel Ayers (Jamie Foxx,) a mentally unstable homeless man who is playing a violin with two strings. He takes the time to get to know Nathaniel and learns that he went to Julliard. Lopez continues get to know Ayers and write about the experiences he has with him.
Why put a movie that can be deemed “Oscar bait” in one of the worst weekends possible? It seems that the studio did not know what to do with it because this was moved from November, the perfect time for “Oscar bait”, to right before the summer movie season. I don’t think that the movie deserved this treatment, but it was not Oscar-worthy.

While I appreciate Jamie Foxx’s performance in this, I was not impressed. Crazy is hard to play and in this seemed like overkill at times. Paraphrasing a line from “Tropic Thunder,” Foxx goes “full-crazy.” It goes to a point where it gets tiring to watch. There is only so much babble someone can hear before it becomes overkill.

Over the past year, I have become a huge Robert Downey Jr. fan. He can play just about anything. Lopez feels like Tony Stark minus the massive amounts of money. He has all the wit and sarcasm of Stark, but on a much different level. Lopez is also a caring person, even if he does not want to show it. Without intending to, he becomes friends with Ayers and develops a deeper connection with a man who he used to see as a story. He wants to help Ayers as much as possible, even to the point where he was willing to tell the police he was a danger to others just to get him medication. He searches the hospitals when he thinks Ayers may be hurt.

One thing the movie did for me personally was simultaneously showed me why I wanted to be a journalist and why I chose not to peruse it. I wanted to learn about people. What Lopez does in the movie was something I wanted to do: find interesting people and write about them. Then again, jobs like that are hard to come by in the journalism world. In the movie the LA Times has to lay off a lot of people because of the economy. Needless to say there were times where I regretted my decision and there were times I was glad I decided to not go into journalism.

A rollercoaster. That is how I can sum up “The Soloist.” It was a rollercoaster of emotion, and not all were movie related. I liked some aspects of the movie, yet did not like others. I saw both the positive and the negative of journalism. None of those can top the first thought I had: an “Oscar bait” movie in one of the worst weekends for movies.

6 out of 10
Rated PG-13 for thematic elements, some drug use and language.
117 min