Movie Review: The Soloist

The Soloist (2009) 

Directed by Joe Wright 

Written by Susannah Grant 

Starring Robert Downey Jr, Jamie Foxx, Catherine Keener, Tom Hollander

Release Date April 24th, 2009 

Published April 23rd, 2009 

The sound of Beethoven played oddly but beautifully on a violin with just two strings echoed through the stone and steel canyons of Los Angeles and altered the life of journalist Steve Lopez forever. That is the very simply, very basic premise of The Soloist which accumulates the sum of Lopez's real life experiences on the big screen.

In The Soloist Robert Downey Jr plays Steve Lopez as a wounded soul. Literally wounded, when we meet him his is soon flat on his back with an ugly road rash following a bike accident. Subsequently, writing a column about his accident earns Steve the requisite sympathy of his readers and a day of peace from his editor/ex-wife playewd Catherine Keener.

The sympathy lasts about a day before he needs a new story to keep the wolves at bay, The Soloist is set in 2005 but reflects the modern newspaper business. Lopez finds his next big story in Nathaniel Anthony Ayers Jr (Jamie Foxx) a street musician battling schizophrenia. Encountering Nathaniel playing a two string violin and hearing him mention something about Julliard, Lopez's reporter instints are awakened.

Indeed, Nathaniel did attend Julliard in 1970 but dropped out when mental illness began to take hold. The story Lopez writes inspires people wanting to help Nathaniel. One older woman sends along her old Cello for Lopez to give to Nathaniel. This keeps Steve returning to Nathaniel's life and slowly finding himself compelled to take responsibility for him even as he himself is not one who has been successful with relationships of any kind.

Directed by Joe Wright, Oscar nominated for Atonement, The Soloist tends to underline points a little too much. With Steve's bike accident one can infer the hand of the director placing Steve's scarred emotional state on Steve's face to make sure we get a visual of how Steve feels inside, scarred.

Much of Jamie Foxx's Nathaniel act is pitched to the classic magic negro stereotype. That is the type where a salt of the earth black man helps a well off white man learn a valuable lesson. That may be a little simple and slightly unfair given the non-fiction nature of The Soloist but it is no less there.

Jamie Foxx does his best to fight off the typicalities of the stereotype role and I did love his commitment to showing Nathaniel's tortured psyche and how music briefly chased away the voices but, as I said, Director Joe Wright cannot resist underlining even the most well communicated point or unceasing cliche and Foxx is undercut by that approach.

The Soloist is for the most part about Robert Downey Jr. and his continuing to grow as a star. Downey has always been talented but as he showed in Iron Man, Downey has that kind of 'what will he do next' charisma that makes you want to follow his next move.

The Steve Lopez played by Downey doesn't need road rash to communicate his wounded soul. Downey conveys psychic wound with effortless ease. Watch Downey resist Foxx's Nathaniel. Watch him sense a good story but have to force himself to remain only an observer and how that approach has hampered each and every relationship in his life.

So much of what Downey does is not in the screenplay but rather in his manner, in his eyes. One is left to wonder if Joe Wright saw what I saw or not. Judging from the way Wright underlines even the quiet, subtle moments of Downey's performance, I guess not.

The Soloist is in many ways exceptional, especially in the performance of Robert Downey Jr, but the proceedings are too often bogged down by Joe Wright's need to make sure the audience gets it. It in this case is how uplifting the idea of Steve Lopez helping Nathaniel Ayers is and how brave Nathaniel is in attempting to make a life for himself through music and despite his illness. We get it Joe. We get it.

See it for Downey Jr, if you're a fan.

Movie Review: Catch and Release

Catch and Release (2007) 

Directed by Susannah Grant 

Written by Susannah Grant 

Starring Jennifer Garner, Kevin Smith, Timothy Olyphant, Sam Jaeger, Fiona Shaw, Juliette Lewis 

Release Date January 26th, 2007

Published January 25th, 2007 

Jennifer Garner is a stunner. Those lips; perfectly bee stung. That body honed from spy play on TV's Alias. And that perfectly indefinable quality that stars have, the effortless ability to be ephemeral. She's got all the assets necessary for stardom and she needs every trick in the bag to make the light breezy romance of Catch and Release work.

A romantic comedy that desperately wants to be more than it is, a female Cameron Crowe movie, an examination of life, death and grief, a sexy romp. The thin characters and thinner premise can only manage a surface level affability that, with a lesser actress in the lead would fail miserably.

Gray (Garner) has lost the love of her life. Her fiance Grady decided to go skiing days before their wedding and died in an accident on the slopes. At his funeral she is trapped with his family and their mutual friends and desperately wants to escape. Hiding in a bathroom she is mortified to accidentally witness Grady's best friend Fritz (Timothy Olyphant) hooking up with the caterer. Gray never liked Fritz before and this does little to improve things.

Unfortunately for Gray; Fritz is staying at the same place she is. Unable to move into the home she was to share with her fiancee, Gray moves in with their closest friends Sam (Kevin Smith) and Dennis (Sam Jaeger). Over the course of the week after Grady's death these four characters each deal with grief in their own unique ways and are tested by revelations about Grady's life that no one, except maybe Fritz might have expected.

The story of Catch and Release wants to be smarter and deeper than it is. Director Susannah Grant, a screenwriter (Charlotte's Web, In Her Shoes) by trade, directing her first feature, at times evokes a lighter version of the warm, nostalgic prose style of Cameron Crowe. What she lacks is Crowe's wit and ear for great dialogue.

The subject of Catch and Release is grief and how different people deal with it. But this is a romantic comedy so, much more time is devoted to developing roadblocks to romance than to delving deeper into the psyches of these characters where director Susannah Grant really seems to want to go. Why else would the movie devote so much time to each characters own quirky way of dealing with their friends death.

Romantic comedy formula tells you that when a male and female character loathe one another; they will eventually fall in love. This leaves the writer-director the challenge of finding ways to put up roadblocks to the couples eventual happiness. In Catch and Release, writer-director Susannah Grant has few new tricks up her sleeve.

There is nothing new here. Grant follows the romance formula. Her only hope was that her stars would be likable enough for us to feel comfortable inside the formula. And we are comfortable. Jennifer Garner is warm and sensitive and easy to fall for. Timothy Olyphant is roguish and charming and we root for him to redeem himself after his wretched introduction.

Then there is the movie's secret weapon, writer-director Kevin Smith. The man behind Silent Bob isn't much of an actor, as he readily admits, but trading off his famously self effacing personality, Smith's self deprecation and vocal mannerisms are terrifically funny. Whenever the film seems to lag a little Smith energizes things with a good joke. It's a bit of a cheat, Smith's Sam threatens to become more of a comic device than a character, but Smith is so much fun that you are unlikely to notice.

Catch and Release teeters on the verge of complete collapse. However, thanks to the megawatt smile of star Jennifer Garner and her unending likability, Catch and Release is a passably entertaining romantic comedy worth your time on DVD or cable in a few months.

Movie Review: Charlotte's Web

Charlotte's Web (2006) 

Directed by Gary Winick 

Written by Susannah Grant, Karey Kirkpatrick 

Starring Julia Roberts, Dakota Fanning, Robert Redford, Steve Buscemi, Oprah Winfrey, Kathy Bates

Release Date December 16th, 2006 

Published December 15th, 2006 

Most people of my generation, Gen-X, were exposed to E.B White's classic children's fable Charlotte's Web by the cartoon adaptation that was a television staple since its creation in 1972. Interesting fact about that adaptation, E.B White hated it. He was wary of Hollywood to begin with and found the adaptation to be lightweight and far too Hollywood.

There is no telling what he would think of the latest incarnation of Charlotte's Web; White died in 1985. However, he did once hope that the film would be given a live action treatment. Under the whimsical direction of Gary Winick (13 Going On 30) with a slightly updated script by Karey Kirkpatrick (Over The Hedge) and Susannah Grant (In her Shoes), this live action Charlotte's Web has the kind of magic that I think E.B White may have appreciated, especially as a fan of talking animals.

Wilbur (voice of Dominic Scott Kay) was a runt pig on his way to slaughter. Thankfully, young Fern (Dakota Fanning) was witness to his birth and stepped in to prevent his execution. The first few months of this spring-pigs life were spent as Fern's pampered pet. However, once school started and the holiday season grew closer, Wilbur's fate seemed to be Christmas dinner.

No longer allowed to be Fern's pet, Wilbur is banished to the barn owned by Fern's uncle, Mr. Zuckerman, where a menagerie of not so friendly neighbors await. Maybe they are just being realistic and not wanting to get close to an animal so likely to be gone by the first snow, but the animals in the Zuckerman barn are a little standoffish.

That is, except for Charlotte (Julia Roberts), a spider who befriends the lonely little pig. Charlotte can relate to being an outcast. As a spider she is not exactly on good terms with her neighbors either. Some are afraid, like Ike the horse (Robert Redford), others are disgusted by her, like Samuel the sheep (John Cleese). Wilbur becomes Charlotte's first friend. Eventually the two become close enough that Charlotte breaks the bad news to him about his likely fate but also promises to find a way to save him.

When I first began seeing trailers for this new Charlotte's Web I was concerned. The trailers featured fart jokes which to me signaled desperation and created the worry that such modern touches would all involve bathroom humor. My memories of Charlotte's Web from childhood are of a classy cartoon that even made the rat Templeton acceptable, even as he rolled in garbage.

Thankfully, my worries were unfounded. The bathroom humor in Charlotte's Web is limited to just a few scenes. What is prevalent throughout this new adaptation is a classy, old school approach to storytelling. Director Gary Winick spins a wondrous tale that is the perfect mixture of sugary sap and honest, touching emotion. The film is at times so saccharine you need to call your dentist but by the end you will find that you've spent the entire film with a smile on your face and maybe even a hint of a tear in the corner of your eye as one of the main characters passes away.

Julia Roberts provides the voice of Charlotte and her soft, honey soaked tones are so soothing you can't help but fall in love with this spider. Soft and sweet, her voice is the calming element needed to leaven the mood of the other voice actors who are either hyper or extremely put on. Roberts brought a similar vocal smoothness to the animated film The Ant Bully earlier this year, another film where her voice-work stands out.

Like the animated version of this story, this Charlotte's Web has a lovely timeless quality. Even with the CGI necessary to create the talking animals, Charlotte's Web has such a classic look and such an old school approach to storytelling that it seems like it could have existed 40 years ago. Director Gary Winick perfectly captures the innocence of E.B White's fable, his characters ,and even the slightly dark undertones of the story that give it such depth and resonance.

Charlotte's Web is at times a little cloying and at times a little too sweet but most of all, Charlott'e Web is a solidly crafted piece of G-rated children's entertainment. The nostalgia factor makes it appealing to adults as well as children but parents will likely be surprised just how much they enjoy  the feel of this film even beyond their memories of the cartoon and the classic book.