This movie is a true life story about a writer for the LA Times, Steve Lopez(played by Robert Downey Jr, who is superb in this movie) who runs into a homeless man who was a student at Julliard. The writer decides to write about the man, Nathaniel Ayers(played by Jamie Foxx who is really good as well) and the movie deals with the relationship that forms.

I liked this movie much much more than I expected to. It deals with the issues of homelessness, mental illness and the issues facing anyone who wants to try and help out. It illustrated that the issue is much more complicated than most movies like this do.

I would highly recommend this movie, if you only see if for Robert Downey Jr's performance it would be worth it.

When I was working Downtown LA, there were an assortment of homeless characters that one would run into routinely at the Mission that is depicted in the movie, The Soloist: There was the Music Man (the man from the movie), the Puppet Man (a famous black ventriloquist from the seventies and eighties who became schizo and homeless in the nineties), Little Man (a schizophrenic black midget who likes to walk in traffic), and others. What I liked about the movie was that it could have been the story of any one of these characters who get lost on the streets of LA. One guy made it out, thanks to Steve Lopez. Puppet Man died. Little Man still wanders the traffic to this day. Good movie.

AC

When I was working Downtown LA, there were an assortment of homeless characters that one would run into routinely at the Mission that is depicted in the movie, The Soloist: There was the Music Man (the man from the movie), the Puppet Man (a famous black ventriloquist from the seventies and eighties who became schizo and homeless in the nineties), Little Man (a schizophrenic black midget who likes to walk in traffic), and others. What I liked about the movie was that it could have been the story of any one of these characters who get lost on the streets of LA. One guy made it out, thanks to Steve Lopez. Puppet Man died. Little Man still wanders the traffic to this day. Good movie.

AC

Yeah I can only imagine what that area is like. 90,000 homeless in greater LA and I am betting mental illness plays a part in a large portion of that number.

Very minor spoilers below..very minor.


I thought the movie depicted how conflicted Lopez was when it became more than a story and moved into something personal. It showed that he didn't intend to be a white knight or a savior, his original intent was just to write a good story and then it got personal.