The Soloist

The Soloist
Directed by Joe Wright

Reviewed by Kirk Barbera

The Soloist is a movie about two individuals living in the same city, but seeming to live in alternate universes. Steve Lopez is a journalist for the esteemed L.A. Times. Mr. Lopez is at a point in his life where he isn’t sure how he feels about the direction he is headed, and where he has been so far. This includes his job, his seemingly wrecked marriage with a fellow journalist, and his relationship with his son. Right at what could be one of the lowest points in his life Mr. Lopez meets a very unusual character; Nathaniel Ayers. Nathaniel is a middle aged black American who went to Julliard. When Mr. Lopez sees him he is playing the violin and quite beautifully. Oh, there’s one thing about Nathaniel, he lives on the streets, and that violin of his only has two strings. The ‘two little pigs went missing’ as Nathaniel says. Nathaniel also has a mental illness most likely schizophrenia.

It would be hard to watch this movie and not see the directors’ viewpoint on genius. Nathaniel is completely infatuated with the great Ludwig Van Beethoven. Although, obvious differences between the two people and both individuals are separated by more than 100 years, they both were portrayed as being quite similar. Ludwig, for example, was mentally handicapped, or so many people thought due to his deafness. Both men were likely to erupt in fits of rage. They also loved music with a similar passion, explicating music’s ability to speak through everyday nuances; life explains itself through music they might say. But, most of all, they both were absolutely in love with Ludwig Van Beethoven.

Each shot of the movie was meticulously crafted to showcase how these two men would eventually become great friends who influenced each other heavily. As in the tracking shot of the cello which had been donated after Mr. Lopez’s article about Nathaniel. The shot tracks this cello from an elderly ladies home to the office of Mr. Lopez. This elucidates the beginning of their ‘friendship.’ Previously, Mr. Lopez had thought of Nathaniel as merely a guy to do a story about, but now he is getting personally involved and this will set off all the incidents throughout the movie. Another great shot showing their distance as two human beings but Mr. Lopez’s willingness to try and enter Nathaniel’s world is a shot in which Lopez is leaning against a large gate while Nathaniel is finishing playing or ‘making love’ as it seems to his two stringed violin. This funny scene starts off with Lopez not wanting to be rude and interrupt Nathaniel as he seems more intent on playing this broken instrument than Lopez has ever been with anything in his entire life. To Lopez, it would seem irreverent to interrupt this god-like infatuation Nathaniel seems to have with his music. It is something that throughout the story Lopez most admires about the estranged Nathaniel, and why he wishes to ‘help’ him.

In the end it isn’t just Mr. Lopez helping Nathaniel, he discovers it’s not his place to help him. Lopez realizes the importance of friendships or as Aristotle exclaimed ‘the importance of a perfect relationship between men.’ Lopez attempted to force drugs and psychiatric help upon Nathaniel, and it almost ended up getting him murdered by his friend. Nathaniel is one of the few truly independent souls in the country, and unfortunately his illness is portrayed as the reason – which it isn’t – Nathaniel can teach us all about how to live our lives for ourselves, no matter what others may think. Nathaniel wasn’t helped by Lopez, he helped Lopez. It may be argued that they helped each other, and in a way this is true, the relationship did seem symbiotic. However, by the end of the film it was apparent that Lopez, a man who lived based off of the opinions of others, was transposed after his encounter with the independent thinking man; Nathaniel Ayers.