Port Perry's John Foote not impressed
May 01, 2009 - 04:30 AM
THE SOLOIST
Directed by Joe Wright
in theatres
(**)
Last year, we critics were quite stunned when this film was pulled from its December release and slated for April, 2009.
The Soloist was supposed to be a bona fide Oscar contender, with the potential for nominations for best film, actors for both stars and director Joe Wright. Wright gave us the extraordinary love story Atonement (2007), which included that magnificent tracking shot at Dunkirk in the aftermath of battle, so we are aware we are in the hands of a very fine director. What likely happened is that the studio realized Robert Downey Jr. was likely to be nominated for Tropic Thunder (2008), as he was, which would pull attention away from The Soloist. There is such a thing as overkill for an actor and last year Downey Jr. was the comeback kid with Iron Man (2008) tearing up the box office and Tropic Thunder allowing the brilliant actor to cut loose with his astonishing talent.
So finally we get The Soloist and sadly it is not a very good film.
Based on a true story, the film is an interesting study of how a diehard news man, Steve Lopez, nicely portrayed by Downey Jr., stumbles upon the fascinating story of a schizophrenic street person, Nathaniel Ayers, well played by Oscar winner Jamie Foxx. Ayers, mentally ill, was a prodigy at Juilliard before his illness took hold of his world. The two men strike up an awkward friendship that leaps barriers often left up rather than knocked down. Neither man is particularly likeable, but the director does not allow us to know them well enough to care about them, flaws and all.
Both actors are geared up to give Oscar-calibre performances and indeed they do their best with the weak screenplay. But at the end of the day, talent does not a movie make. Downey Jr. portrays the character with such toxicity, I found it hard to believe a heart beat in his chest. It is a good performance, just a lousy character. Lopez possesses no humanity.
In fact, that is the film's major flaw, the utter lack of humanity.
To his credit, Wright does not shy away from the material and makes clear that Nathaniel is indeed very ill, and without some help would likely perish alone on the streets of Los Angeles. The director makes clear at the end of the film that 90,000 people are homeless on the streets of greater LA. He is clearly asking us to look around at the people we see on the streets every day, but his actors make them so unlikable that we in turn ask ... why?
17 AGAIN
in theatres
(BOMB)
Zac Ephron lacks the talent for me to take him seriously. Yep he can dance, maybe even sing, but the lad cannot act. Not one bit. In this very bad film, based on so many others such as Freaky Friday (2004) and Big (1988), Ephron, who starts the film as Matthew Perry, ends up back in high school where he tries to do things better.
Utter torture yet it made millions.
When will they make some good movies that will make some money? Does anyone miss the 70s as much as I do? Great films actually made money...
John Foote, director of the Toronto Film School, is a nationally known film historian/critic and a Port Perry resident. Get more reviews at www.footeonfilm.com. Contact him at jhfoote@xplornet.com.
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