The Soloist was a film directed in 2008 by Joe Wright, previously the director and adapter of Pride and Prejudice and Atonement which were critically acclaimed for their accuracy to the books original narrative. The film was released in April 2009 in the US and then released in September in the UK, proving an average success the film managed to place itself 4th in the most popular films that month however at the end of its showings only $31 million was made which is just over half its budget of $60 million. The reason for this what put down to the release date which was set back continuously, but many different film review websites had shown its popularity as mediocre, this was due to its unusual narrative and inability to follow the true story.

The film follows the true story of Steve Lopez, a Los Angeles times columnist, searching for a new article and something fresh to write about. When taking a look around the famous skid row of LA he stumbles upon Nathaniel Ayers, a homeless man which an extrodinary talent for playing his 2 string violin. Taking this into account Steve Lopez writes a series of articles on his life as a homeless person on the backdrop of his musical talents, however when fans of the story respond to his plight Steve finds himself building a relationship with the artist which takes him and the musician on a struggling journey to battle Nathaniel's schizophrenia.

The film was made by Universal studios and Dreamworks, financed by Working Title and produced by Krasnoff Foster Entertainment and Between Two Trees production groups. While filming the director used over 500 local homeless persons to help with filming and to gain a deep understanding of the life and struggle the main character would've had to face. However being out of place in an American setting Joe Wright struggled to define the differences in race and social rank, unlike his previous films which excelled in deeply describing struggles between two people in different worlds.

My opinion of the film is that it has been well developed and the research conducted by the director and production teams was more than enough to grasp the story but because of the lack of experience director Joe Wright had in this area the film lacked the essence of struggle.