THE SOLOIST
HEADLINE: ** Down and Out **
Title: THE SOLOIST
Quality: * * * Acceptability: -2
SUBTITLES: None
WARNING CODES:
Language: LL
Violence: VV
Sex: None
Nudity: None
RATING: PG-13
RELEASE: April 24, 2009
TIME: 109 minutes
STARRING: Robert Downey, Jr., Jamie Foxx, Catherine Keener, Tom Hollander, and LisaGay Hamilton
DIRECTOR: Joe Wright
PRODUCERS: Gary Foster and Russ Krasnoff
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Jeff Skoll, and Patricia Whitcher
WRITER: Susannah Grant
BASED ON THE BOOK BY: Steve Lopez
DISTRIBUTOR: Paramount Pictures/Viacom
CONTENT: (CCC, BBB, Ab, Pa, CapCap, LL, VV, AA, DD, M) Very strong Christian worldview includes the entire Lord's Prayer and many overt references to Jesus Christ at homeless shelter and by different people who try to help deranged lead character, the schizophrenic lead character calls a reporter trying to help him God and believes that the reporter is God for a while, the reporter is furious about that, the reporter goes from unbelieving to open about faith at the end, one character is an atheist but the reporter makes fun of him, and some other eclectic comments, plus a strong defense of capitalism and the Christian approach to helping other people, from a very strong Christian perspective; 21 obscenities, three profanities and man urinates and trips on urine and man has to clean up coyote urine; some very intense violence in a few places including homeless woman has a bloody death from an overdose, homeless people beat each other up, homeless man beats up reporter, police clear out homeless people, and homeless man starts to attack musician using a club with nails in it; no sex; no nudity; a lot of alcohol use and drunkenness; drug use and people are hooked on psychiatric drugs for mental problems; and, reporter finds out he can't save the world, another reporter bashes capitalism, and Los Angeles mayor gives money for homeless rebuked.
GENRE: Drama
INTENDED AUDIENCE:
Please address your comments to:
Sumner Redstone, Chairman/CEO, Viacom
Brad Grey, Chairman/CEO, Paramount Pictures
5555 Melrose Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90038-3197
Phone: (323) 956-5000
Website: www.paramount.com
SUMMARY: Based on a true story, THE SOLOIST stars Robert Downey, Jr. and Jamie Foxx in a story about a Los Angeles reporter who, in the process of trying to help a homeless, mentally unstable musical prodigy, learns about grace, faith and love. THE SOLOIST is an inspirational movie with strong performances by Foxx and Downey with a surprisingly strong Christian worldview, but the movie tries to be too edgy and contains too much gratuitous foul language and too many weird, disjointed moments that don't work.
IN BRIEF:
Based on a true story, THE SOLOIST stars Robert Downey, Jr., as Los Angeles reporter Steve Lopez. Steve's life has fallen apart. His wife has left him. His son doesn't return his calls. Steve stumbles upon Nathaniel Ayers, a homeless black man played by Jamie Foxx who beautifully plays his damaged violin, which only has two strings. Steve learns that mental problems have damaged this musical prodigy. He decides to help Nathaniel, but that proves to be more difficult than Steve realized. In the process, Steve learns about grace and faith and that he is not the Savior, but can be a friend.
THE SOLOIST is an inspirational movie with strong performances by Robert Downey, Jr. and Jamie Foxx. The music is uplifting. Best of all, it has a very strong Christian worldview that could reach many people. The problem with the movie is that it tries to be too edgy. Thus, there is a significant amount of gratuitous foul language and some intense violence and strange, dreamlike effects. Parts of the movie forget the plot entirely and deal just with Steve's problems. At one point, the movie becomes downright weird.
NOTE from Dr. Ted Baehr, publisher of Movieguide Magazine. For more information from a Christian perspective, order the latest Movieguide Magazine by calling 1-800-899-6684(MOVI) or visit our website at www.movieguide.org. Movieguide is dedicated to redeeming the values of Hollywood by informing parents about today's movies and entertainment and by showing media executives and artists that family-friendly and even Christian-friendly movies do best at the box office year in and year out. Movieguide now offers an online subscription to its magazine version, atwww.movieguide.org. The magazine, which comes out 25 times a year, contains many informative articles and reviews that help parents train their children to be media-wise consumers.
