Day 32: The Soloist

"Beauty is art, music is beauty."

At the start of the movie, we are set up with a scene where L.A. Times journalist Steve Lopez (Robert Downey Jr.) has a terrible bicycle accident that forces him into the hospital. Even though he is not in the hospital long, it becomes a major setback. You see, Lopez's biggest problem isn't that he badly cut and bruised his face, but its the deadline for his weekly column that is his fierce opponent. Struggling to find an enticing story, Lopez takes to the streets of L.A. to hunt down new material to write about.



While in a small city park, Lopez over hears the playing of a beautiful violin. Eager to find out where the noise is coming from, he looks around the corner of a statue and finds Nathaniel Ayers (Jamie Foxx), a homeless schizophrenic playing a beat up violin with only two strings still attached. Ayers takes notice of Lopez quickly and strikes up a friendly conversation. While conversing back and forth, Lopez finds out that Ayers once attended Juilliard, a highly ranked musical college. Without another word needing to be said, Lopez new he had just found what he was looking for, and what he was going to write about.


With no time to spare, Lopez tries to find out as much about Nathaniel Ayers as he possible can. He goes through the trouble of calling Julliard to see if he actually attended, and even though at first they said he didn't, it was later confirmed that they made a mistake while going through the records and that he was a student years ago. Lopez couldn't understand how someone who attended such a prestigious school and someone with all that musical talent would end up living on the street of Los Angeles. Steve Lopez at this time was unaware of Nathaniel's schizophrenic condition.

After days spent together, Lopez finally contrives his story and publishes it. The column rating are superb and one lady was so touched by the story of Nathaniel, that she sent Steve her old cello to give to Ayers. After delivering the cello to Nathaniel, Lopez begins to realize that there relationship goes beyond just the story he wrote, but that they actually had a real friendship with one another. Throughout the next few weeks, Lopez tries to do whatever he can for Ayers, with his biggest goal to get him off of the streets. Along with that, he tries to help Ayers realize that he can revive his music career and play like he once did when he was a child.

Their friendship doesn't come with ease though, as many times there are bumps in the road. The beauty to this story is that throughout the trials and tribulations that they face with one another, neither of them ever give up. They both find ways to move on and look past the blemishes that they each have. The closing scene is one that will melt your heart away. Both find a state of happiness with each other, as well as finding happiness outside of each other within their own families.

Joe Wright's true story about the life of Nathaniel Ayers and Steve Lopez is truly touching. Not only does its teach you lessons for your own life, but its shows us why each and every person in this world deserves a second chance.