‘The Soloist’ - moving, without being mawkish

The new film from Joe Wright, the English director of two critically acclaimed period dramas - the TV series Pride and Prejudice and the Bafta-winning film Atonement - marks a radical departure. The Soloist tells the true story of a classically trained cellist, Nathaniel Ayers, who had to drop out of Juilliard because he began to see and hear things. He ended up homeless on the streets of Los Angeles, busking with his cello, where he was befriended by a journalist who eventually wrote a book about his battle with schizophrenia.

Ayers, who was one of the first ever black students at Juilliard, the prestigious performing arts conservatory in New York, is played in Wright's film by Jamie Foxx. The journalist, Steve Lopez, is portrayed by Robert Downey Jr.

Also appearing in the film are 500 actors, extras, consultants and crew members from Skid Row, a community of 12,000 people, many of them homeless, in Los Angeles. Wright, who was introduced to Skid Row by Lopez, said: "It's terrifying when you first go down there. We have an idea that people who are addicted to crack would sooner stab you than look at you.

"But what you realise is that it's far less scary than Beverly Hills or Hollywood," Wright went on, "and the people there are far less likely to do you any harm."

Wright first read the script for The Soloist while he was editing Atonement. "I kind of lost my marbles a bit during the post-production of that film and scared myself," he said. "So I was interested in placing those fears. Mental illness has always been the thing that has scared me more than anything else and I’ve always made films to confront my fears."

Jamie Foxx, a musician in his own right, who won an Oscar for his portrayal of blind musician Ray Charles in Ray, says he found the experience of playing a schizophrenic unsettling. "It was tough, and one of my friends came to stay with me and asked, 'Are you going to be OK?' because we were going through some dark moments. And I said, 'You know, I can't shake this character'."

At one stage, Foxx even visited a therapist to enquire about the possible consequences for his own mental health. "I asked, 'Can I catch schizophrenia?' and he said, 'No, you can't, and even if you let yourself go, we're here'."

As for Nathaniel Ayers, now 58 and still afflicted by the illness, he has started living in an apartment and says he no longer has to worry about people stealing his instruments. Halle Berry has offered to fund some time for him in a recording studio.

He attended the premiere of The Soloist – but wore a blindfold rather than watch the film. "I listened to the film but I did not watch it," he explained in a recent interview with the Mirror. "I don't really watch films, I prefer to concentrate on my music. I only went to the premiere because people had gone to so much trouble over me."

WHAT THE CRITICS ARE SAYING:

Dave Calhoun, Time Out: [Director Joe Wright has] made a film as loopy and willful as its protagonists and isn't afraid to leave behind its story to indulge more difficult themes and movements in inventive and challenging ways. One long scene is just an abstract dance of vivid colours – synaesthesia made visual – as Lopez takes Ayers to watch an orchestra at the Disney Concert Hall and Ayers is transported, mentally, to a place to which he hasn't been for years. (Verdict: four stars out of five)

Dan Jolin, Empire: The Soloist asks intelligent questions, but is honest enough to admit that there are no answers… It's not really giving anything away to say you shouldn't expect a punch-the-air ending; neither should you hope for a welter of cathartic sobs. Furthermore, the two leads have taken standard showy roles — dogged-but-flawed journalist and schizophrenic hobo/musical prodigy respectively — and underpinned both with weight and warmth. (Verdict: four stars out of five)

Martin Hoyle, Financial Times: The principal actors [are] superb. Robert Downey Jr briskly resists sentimentalising the journo and Jamie Foxx's lost musician has genuinely, unbearably moving moments, though cynics may see his as the latest handicapped role made to order for the Oscars. (Verdict: three stars out of five)