Film: B
One minute everything can go right in life, and the next could be the beginning of nothing but pain and sorrow. Life is fragile. Nearly 80,000 homeless roam Los Angeles like nomads, the most of any American city, and much less separates them from us than you think. Plenty of them came from good foundations, and stable lives, but suddenly life came crashing down on them hard. They are ignored by their families and ignored by society itself. After LA Times journalist, Steve Lopez crashed on his bicycle, he paid attention to one homeless man who played the sad strings of society.

The Soloist is a serious drama based on a true story of Lopez (Robert Downey Jr.) discovering a musical prodigy laying next to waste on the streets of Los Angeles. After some fact checking, the famed New York City art school, Juilliard accepted one Nathaniel Ayers (Jamie Foxx) in the 1970s as a promising cello player with a fervor for Beethoven. Ayers never finished his schooling, however, because he was tormented by voices in his head. Decades later, a broken and disheveled man, Ayers wanders the streets of Los Angeles with his life collected in a shopping cart uttering madness to himself all day and sprawling out on the cement jungle each night.

Lopez uses Ayers at first, to keep his job alive during the crumbling newspaper industry. In his column, he writes about Ayers wondering how someone of his talent could find himself struggling to stay alive on the streets. Without any kind of education or training, Lopez befriends Ayers and tries to bring him back to society by making Ayers passion for music more accessible to him. But Ayers is filled with demons that won’t allow for an easy transition. Tested to uncomfortable limits, Lopez remains persistent in getting Ayers to a better place, and in return Lopez sees what he’s been missing in his life. Changes occur in the self-absorbed writer, who at the beginning of the movie was concerned with one person.

The painful reality of the landscape of The Soloist is that there are not enough people like Steve Lopez to care about any of the thousands that wander from overpass to street grate. Most people would rather avoid Skid Row (the streets of downtown LA where the homeless reside) like the plague and understandably so. It’s the humanity of two men that will humble those who watch the Soloist. Two men who find a friendship together, and test it to great measures because each thinks that being alone will make them happier. It’s easier. It’s simpler. Maybe, but the consequences of being a true “soloist” can take its toll to where there’s not much that separates a homeless man and a well-to-do writer.

Apparently, many people avoided this film as well at the box office back in April when most movie goers were ramping up for the summer blockbuster. After seeing the film I can see why it wasn’t a bigger hit. It’s not because of the acting (god no) or the script, or even anything the crew could have done. Okay, it is an achingly slow film, but the general public doesn’t want anything to do with the hardships of others, especially when so many are experiencing tough times of their own. And if escaping from that reality is what movies are all about, then The Soloist is not for you. But for those who want to see two fine performances and more importantly, get exposed to real life, do so, you owe it to your fellow man.

Video: A
The Soloist is fitted with a splendid 1080p AVC-encoded transfer framed in 2.39:1. Detail is not a problem as seen in the scenes inside the LA Times offices. Stacks of paper and mayhem are ubiquitous at every turn. The scenes of Skid Row are filled with orchestrated motion and depth and as complex as those scenes are, there is not a loss of detail whatsoever. The scene where Nathaniel sees the LA Philharmonic rehearsal with Steve at Disney Hall he closes his eyes and a firework display of color goes off that’s just the tip of the iceberg of how well colors are reproduced. Fleshtones, equally striking and accurate revealing every wrinkle, stress line, and blemish of the homeless unapologetically.

Audio: A-
A dialogue-driven 5.1 Dolby True-HD audio track steers the Soloist to place where all of the details stand out. There are panning effects and directional noise that accurately places you in the center of the more active scenes but the ones that stand out are when conversation is going on in the foreground and in the background. Skid Row is particularly filled with life during the day or night. And when the music plays, that’s when you sit back and enjoy it how Nathaniel would and let it take over your mind. The room fills with warmth, perfectly pitched and balanced. Bigger bass is reserved for some of the few action sequences we are privy to, but isn’t overpowering. Also available on the disc are French and Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital tracks, and subtitles in English, English SDH, French and Spanish.

Extras: B+
Anytime you watch a film about real people, you want to see and get to know the actual people who the film portrays. The extras provided satisfy that curiosity as the real Steve Lopez, Nathaniel Ayers and his sister, Jennifer talk (and perform) in front of the camera and are gracious enough to share their story first hand. I only wished there was a full performance by Ayers instead of the minute or two we do get but here’s what is included. All of the featurettes are in HD with the exception of the deleted scenes.

Audio Commentary with Director Joe Wright picks his spots to interject technical aspects of scenes, information about schizophrenics, themes and particular moments that he felt he could have done better, like downplaying the cello as a character. It a bit of dry track, not talkative enough, but that’s better than being overly annoying.

An Unlikely Friendship: Making the Soloist HD (19:37) shows behind-the-scenes footage of the integral parts of the film such as courting Lopez to adapt his story and articles to film, Jamie Foxx learning how to play the cello and violin, and getting the people on skid row to be extras in the film and add authenticity to the Soloist.

Kindness, Courtesy and Respect: Mr. Ayers + Mr. Lopez HD (4:48) shows the real Steve Lopez and Nathaniel Ayers (and his sister) talking about their friendship as well as Ayers playing the cello. This is the most we get to see of Ayers and despite the new found fame, he is still living in the LAMP apartment and walks the streets of Los Angeles.

One Size Does Not Fit All: Addressing the Homelessness in Los Angeles HD (9:45) speaks of the rapidly growing homeless rate in Los Angeles in skid row. There are more homeless in Los Angeles than San Francisco, Chicago, New York City, Philadelphia, Portand, and Houston combined. Social services like Midnight Mission and LAMP talk about their programs and their causes in hopes of publicizing the problem and ask for whatever help can be donated.

There were five Deleted Scenes SD (9:49) that show Lopez with the flirty lab technician (Jena Malone), Lopez and Nathaniel listening to Beethoven in the car, Nathaniel’s childhood antagonists, playing the cello for his sister at LAMP, and an extensive scene where the voices in his head are “dealt” with.

Juilliard: The Education of Nathaniel Ayers HD (4:08) Producer Gary Foster discusses Ayers acceptance into Juilliard and what a prestige achievement it was for him to play there. Foster also has a story to tell about Ayers and fellow classmate, Yo-Yo Ma.

Beth’s Story HD (2:02) – an animated short or public service announcement about how easy it can be to be homeless.

The Theatrical Trailer HD (2:33) makes the film seem like a more powerful and magical movie.

An Orchestrated Drag – Overall Shock Value: B+
There’s nothing inherently wrong with The Soloist, as it retells the very real and surprising bond between two men who would probably have never met, set against the landscape of the troublesome homeless problem in Los Angeles. The acting of Downey Jr. and Foxx is exceptional and the story has the right amount of depth and weight to it. I found the story overall depressing and dragged down by the reality of the LA homelessness–which is the point–but it’s not the type of film I could bring myself to enjoy again and again; not because of the social issue at hand, but because the pacing just drags to a snail’s pace at times. I still admire the work behind The Soloist and do think it’s worthy of a strong and confident rental. With the fine extras that should be explored and a solid technical treatment, The Soloist blu-ray preserves the story of Nathaniel Ayers and Steve Lopez in highest of regards.