The Soloist opens with Steve Lopez (Downey Jr.) riding his bike through the early morning of Los Angeles. He is riding like a man possessed, why? No idea. On top of that, he is blatantly going against the flow of traffic, flying through clusters of other cyclists heading in his direction. It all ends abruptly as Lopez is tossed over the handlebars where he becomes intimate with the pavement.
It is after his painful-looking spill and subsequent column on his stay at the local hospital that he finds a homeless man playing a one-string violin on the streets. Please allow the film to introduce Nathaniel Anthony Ayers Jr. (Jamie Foxx). Lopez is taken with the man who is definitely a bit off, but he also seems intelligent, kind, and has a beautiful love of music. Lopez decides to write a story about the man, and so begins digging into his past.
While discovering the man who would become Ayers, Lopez finds something else, a kinship with this lost soul. It is the familiar story of the changed man: someone whose experience has made him cynical finds someone else whose life has taken a different path, no matter what curve balls life has thrown him. He has taken them and done the best he can, never succumbing to the cynicism around him.
The two men become close friends, although it is a strained, rocky relationship that is initially built on the shaky foundation of writer/subject. It is very reminiscent of Resurrecting the Champ, a similar true story that focused on a writer (Josh Hartnett) and a homeless boxing champion (Samuel L. Jackson). The two films have very similar beats and both succeed in spite of their familiarity. Why? It is all about the performances.
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