"The Soloist"

I had a pretty quiet weekend - Friday night and Sunday afternoon I helped out at DMTC. But Saturday night, Sally and I went to see Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey, Jr. in "The Soloist".

The movie makes the point that there are definite limits to what one can do for mentally-ill homeless people. The best thing to do is to be a good friend.

Steve Lopez hasn't had a good story in a while and the newspaper where he works is laying off journalists due to falling ratings. He had been looking for a story in all the wrong places; when he happened upon a homeless violinist, Nathaniel Ayers, playing beautifully with only 2 strings. Ayers was a former Julliard student who begins to trust Lopez, and a friendship grows, but not necessarily to the benefit of either. While Lopez intention is to help Ayers; he isn't sure that he has in the end. Some believe Lopez saved Ayers, because he became his only friend. Can the act of caring be enough to help a person who has a mental illness? Even still, Lopez has been positively influenced by witnessing the musical genius he has found in Ayers. He was interested in Ayers and so were his readers and public officials, including the mayor, who pledges money for homeless centers.

Since I periodically bump into homeless people, I thought it interesting that the homeless people in the movie seemed ever so much more colorful than the people I typically meet. The homeless situation in LA looked like the seventh circle of hell in the movie, but I just bet if you go down there to LA and look around, it's not nearly so scary. Nevertheless, not-so-scary makes a dull movie, and so the situation was dramatized for cinematic appeal.

I thought it interesting how newspaper professional Steve Lopez (Robert Downey, Jr.) and street musician Nathaniel Ayers (Jamie Foxx) both spoke in nearly-identical clipped rhythms. Madness for all of us is just one step away!

Some people are interpreting this as a sad movie, but I didn't find it sad. Sad is if you persist in failing to see the limits of your ability to change the world. Happy is when you go just as far as you CAN go to change the world, and then accept that is all you can do.

"A Beautiful Mind" explored mathematics and madness. "The Soloist" explored music and madness. We need just one more movie to make the triptych complete (mathematics and music).