Free Essay About My Favorite Film

My favorite film is The Soloist. It is a 2009 American drama film directed by Joe Wright, produced by Gary Foster and Russ Krasnoff, starring Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey, Jr.. It is based on the true story of Nathaniel Ayers, a mentally ill musician. After watching this film I couldn’t find words to describe all the emotions I experienced.
The movie tells us about Steve Lopez, a journalist working for L.A. Times. One day, he encounters Nathaniel Ayers, a homeless schizophrenic, who skilfully plays a broken violin. They have a conversation, and Steve learns that Nathaniel attended Juilliard. He decides to write an article about Nathaniel, and so begins the story of their friendship. The plot is quite predictable, but the movie’s main feature is not a complicated story, it is about simple but important things and problems of different people. A story told at this movie is kind and inspiring, it wakes our minds and reminds us of what is really important in our lives.
Good decorations and actor play help us plunge into the story. We see dirty and awful life of homeless people through eyes of the journalist, while scenes with Nathaniel don’t show us that aversion in the environment, implying that he got used to such a way of living. By the way, most of the homeless shown in the movie are not actors but real persons without any make-up or costumes, who are really living on the streets or mentally ill. This helps us see the problem of homeless people from the inside.
The film’s visual appearance is not innovative or unusual. Seamus McGarvey’s cinematography is rather consistently good. With a help of right color choices and camera angles it helps you feel the story completely. But one scene is definitely worth mentioning: when Nathaniel Ayers plays the cello given to him by Steve in the tunnel, camera shows us birds flying up into the sky above the city, and it seems that it is Nathaniel’s music flying all over the city. Speaking of music, the movie is full of great classical pieces. When music is played, all background sounds such as noise of cars become quieter, and that accents the music and shows us how it can help a person deal with problems and find harmony with environment.
The film is definitely worth seeing. Great combination of stars, music and nice photography create an atmospheric screen version of a sincere story of two usual men who changed each other’s lives and may change yours.