The Soloist

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The Soloist
Directed by	Joe Wright
Produced by	Gary Foster Russ Krasnoff
Written by	Screenplay: Susannah Grant Book and articles: Steve Lopez
Starring	Jamie Foxx Robert Downey Jr. Catherine Keener
Music by	Dario Marianelli
Cinematography	Seamus McGarvey
Editing by	Paul Tothill
Studio	StudioCanal Participant Media Working Title Films
Distributed by	DreamWorks Pictures (US) Universal Pictures (international)
Release date(s)	24 April 2009 (US) 11 September 2009 (UK)
Running time	117 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$60 million
Gross revenue	$31,720,158 (worldwide)

The Soloist is a 2009 drama film directed by Joe Wright, and starring Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr. The screenplay by Susannah Grant is based on the book, The Soloist by Steve Lopez. The film is based on a true story of Nathaniel Ayers, a musician who develops schizophrenia and becomes homeless.

Foxx portrays Ayers, who is considered a cello prodigy, and Downey portrays Lopez, a Los Angeles Times columnist who discovers Ayers and writes about him in the newspaper. The film was released in theatres on 24 April 2009^[1] and on DVD and Blu-Ray August 5.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Production 4 Reception 4.1 Critical reaction 4.2 Box office 5 Notes 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Plot

The Soloist is based on the true story of Nathaniel Ayers (Jamie Foxx), a musical prodigy who develops schizophrenia during his second year at Juilliard School. Ayers becomes homeless and plays a 2 two stringed violin in the streets of downtown Los Angeles.

[edit] Cast

• Jamie Foxx as Nathaniel Ayers, a musician with paranoid schizophrenia who becomes homeless because of his illness.^[2]
• Robert Downey Jr. as Steve Lopez, a columnist for the Los Angeles Times who wrote about Nathaniel Ayers and developed a friendship with him.^[3]
• Catherine Keener as Lopez's ex-wife and editor at the Los Angeles Times.
• Tom Hollander as Graham Claydon, a Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra cellist who attempts to rehabilitate Ayers.^[4]
• Lisa Gay Hamilton as Jennifer, Ayers' sister.^[5]
• Rachael Harris as Lopez's co-worker.^[6]
• Jena Malone as a lab technician.
• Diana Gomes as a Psychologist.
• Stephen Root as Curt Reynolds

[edit] Production

The Soloist, directed by Joe Wright, was written by Susannah Grant, based on a series of columns^[7] written by Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez, who chronicled the plight of Nathaniel Ayers, Jr., a musician with schizophrenia, and eventually was chronicled in Lopez' book, "The Soloist").^[2] Grant also drew elements of the story from a book written by Lopez, which was published in the spring of 2008.^[3] The film was budgeted at $60 million, twice the budget amount of Wright's previous film, Atonement.^[8] Production began in January 2008 and was filmed mostly in Los Angeles,^[2] with some scenes shot in Cleveland.

[edit] Reception

[edit] Critical reaction

Overall, the film has received somewhat mixed reviews. Based on 120 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an overall rating 55% (considered "Rotten") of reviews being positive with an average score of 6/10.^[9] At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 top reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 61 out of 100, which indicates "generally favorable reviews", based on 32 reviews.^[10] Reviewers generally praise the performances by Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx, but comment on the film's lack of narrative focus in attempting to tell a convincing or engaging story due to the somewhat "uneven" direction by director Wright.^[11] Many felt that the project was a bit of a "mismatch" for Joe Wright, and felt it was one of his weakest films to date, following the success of his adaptations of Pride and Prejudice (2005) and Atonement (2007).

[edit] Box office

On its opening weekend, the film opened #4 behind Fighting, 17 Again, and Obsessed, grossing $9,715,000 in 2,024 theaters with a $4,800 average per theater.^[12] The film went on to only recover about half of its total budget bringing in $31,720,158. This was blamed on the film's initial release date being postponed, as well as the film's release coming one week before the 2009 summer movie season.

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

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[edit] External links

• Official website
• The Soloist at the Internet Movie Database
• The Soloist at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Soloist at Box Office Mojo
• The Soloist at Allmovie
• Reel People: Jamie Foxx is Nathaniel Ayers
• Chris Orr's review of The Soloist at The New Republic
• Movie's trailers
• Nathaniel Ayers Performs July 2009 NAMI Convention

v • d • e Films directed by Joe Wright Pride & Prejudice (2005) · Atonement (2007) · The Soloist (2009)