The Soloist

Postponed from last year’s Oscar season, and it’s easy to see why. The movie isn’t good, and it isn’t bad. It just sort of sits there and accomplishes little even though it has two hard-working, reliable actors at its core. Robert Downey Jr. plays a reporter looking for stories who stumbles upon a schizophrenic homeless man (Jamie Foxx) who used to attend Julliard. The reporter originally seeks material for his paper but begins to care about the man’s plight and takes measures to help him. Not too sure what the message is here, but it’s the second film in two weeks to trumpet the virtues of print news as opposed to the internet. (State of Play was the first.) Downey is good as always, but Foxx’s performance is inconsistent and sloppy. Supposedly based on a true story.