What's altogether surprising is its refusal to romanticise either of its troubled or flawed central characters.
Comment
09/03/09
The Soloist (2009)
55
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:181
Fresh:99
Rotten:82
Average Rating:5.9/10
Consensus: Though it features strong performances by its lead players, a lack of narrative focus prevents The Soloist from hitting its mark.
Australian Theatrical Release:
Sep 3, 2009 Wide
US Box Office: $31,670,931
Synopsis: Director Joe Wright (ATONEMENT, PRIDE & PREJUDICE) brings the true story of an unlikely friendship to life in THE SOLOIST. An award-winning columnist with the Los Angeles Times, Steve Lopez (Robert... [More]
Starring: Jamie Foxx, Robert Downey, Catherine Keener, Tom Hollander
Director: Joe Wright
Reviews for The Soloist
Top CriticThe facts offer potential for a heart-rending and emotional movie experience, but Wright (director of Atonement and Pride and Prejudice) goes Hollywood with his first American feature.
09/02/09
Top CriticPlaying up to music and disabled character clichés, the filmmakers seem to be Oscar fishing with this almost-there drama.
09/02/09
Top CriticThere are fabulous performances from both Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr, it’s just that the power of the story of these two men gets lost in the mix.
09/02/09
Top CriticSomewhere in here, there is a simple, powerful story. If only Wright and Grant had been able to find it.
09/01/09
Top CriticIts power may owe more to Beethoven and Bach than the skills of the filmmakers, but it can be recommended to all who like a strange and moving story.
08/30/09
Top CriticRobert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx are highly convincing. Problem is, the film lets them down. It is not as powerful or moving as it could -- and should -- have been.
08/30/09
Top CriticThis film isn't as much about homelessness as about helplessness - and how some people are able not necessarily to overcome it, but to manage it. And how people like Steve Lopez, unintentionally help themselves when they try to help others. That's a great
08/28/09
Top CriticAs a film, even in the hands of Atonement director Joe Wright and with talents such as the amazing Downey Jnr, Foxx and Keener, our emotional experience is strangely muted
08/28/09
Top Critic"The Soloist" is not a film in which you anticipate Robert Downey Jr. will be twice doused in urine. Such are the territorial markings of Joe Wright, whose directorial quirks undermine moving moments and committed performances in this musical biopic.
10/26/09
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10/15/09
Intelligent and uncompromising, with knock-out performances from Downey Jr. and Foxx.
09/25/09
Top CriticA deliriously imperfect film – and all the better for it.
09/25/09
The Soloist brings to life its story with genuine compassion, neatly avoiding many of the traps that afflict Hollywood films about mental illness. And Jamie Foxx's transformation will simply astound.
09/25/09
Ultimately, the reason that The Soloist fails is because the writer and the director have been bamboozled by the seriousness of the subject matter.
09/25/09
Top CriticA handsomely made but tonally uncertain film; it's unsure whether to be an old-fashioned inspirational heartwarmer, or a paranoid prose-poem about ruined lives on the city's dangerous margins.
09/25/09
Top CriticThe Soloist has its imperfections, but its ambition trumps them.
09/25/09
Wright’s major mistake is the flashback to Nathaniel’s background. Mundane, TV movie simplistic and, ironically, very middle-class patronising, it causes the film’s trajectory to go limp.
09/25/09
The Soloist isn't the cringe-worthy Rain Man rip-off it might have been, but that's the only surprise this film has to offer. If it were a piece of music, it would be the kind you hear in a lift when you're stuck between floors...
09/25/09
Thankfully, there's no contrived Hollywood ending but you can't help thinking this is more a three-minute wonder than a dramatic symphony.
09/25/09
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