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(1 - 39) of 39 OFCS Rating: 39% Rotten Page   1   2.5/5 "Despite being almost exclusively tailored to pluck at our emotional strings, The Soloist is an oddly uninvolving experience."   Cut Print Review   Anders Wotzke "Blessed with superb performances by Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx, 'The Soloist' deserves consideration during this year's awards season."   ReelTalk Movie Reviews   Betty Jo Tucker 2/5 "The Soloist is all artifice. It should have stayed true to the art involved."   PopMatters   Bill Gibron A "The studio would like to sell a candied inspirational story, but director Joe Wright avoids the sugared path at all turns, producing a stunning, transcendent celluloid event."   BrianOrndorf.com   Brian Orndorf 3/5 "both leads are at the top of their game in a story that normally brings out the worst in actors of this caliber"   Filmcritic.com   Chris Barsanti C "Heartfelt performances from Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx can't counteract a lack of narrative focus that prevents the film from taking hold."   ColeSmithey.com   Cole Smithey 5/10 "The Soloist illustrates Nathaniel's internal life -- his music and his madness -- in reductive, sensational imagery."   PopMatters   Cynthia Fuchs 49/100 "The movie's final attempts at tugging at the viewer's heartstrings ultimately fall flat, and it's consequently impossible to label The Soloist as anything other than a well-intentioned misfire."   AskMen.com   David Nusair C+ "Too bland a presentation to be remembered later on during Oscar time for the 2009 award."   Ozus' World Movie Reviews   Dennis Schwartz 2.5/4 "Director Joe Wright may not always be able to resist self-indulgence, but credit the filmmaker for tending to the story with a pace and tone that meld commerciality with an art-house mentality."   DustinPutman.com   Dustin Putman B "One false move here or there and it would have come off as sappy or contrived, but no -- it works."   Film.com   Eric D. Snider C "If the film is smarter and more ambitious than I expected, it is also less involving: a meandering, digressive plea for a social conscience that never finds a rhythm or a pulse."   Film Blather   Eugene Novikov "When [Catherine] Keener's Mary Weston suggests that Lopez may be exploiting Ayers, it is tempting to wonder how the filmmakers would react to the same accusation."   DVD Review   Felix Gonzalez Jr. "Get me rewrite"   CinePassion   Fernando F. Croce 2/4 "Although ambitious in its lyrical presentation, filmmaker Joe Wright's The Soloist plays a stale tune of cliched melancholy musical chairs."   Movie Eye   Frank Ochieng C- "Mawkish, manipulative, bombastic tearjerker [that] seems more about making a statement than translating the story into affecting drama."   One Guy's Opinion   Frank Swietek 4/5 "A deeply spiritual movie about the moral complexities of helping another person, opening one's heart, feeling the pain of another, and letting go of the need to fix that person but instead to simply be present in love."   Spirituality and Practice   Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat 3/5 "The Soloist is like its two protagonists: It's a little messy and beaten up in spots, but ultimately it's decent and dignified."   MSN Movies   James Rocchi 2/4 "A pitchy affair that ultimately misses its mark."   Palo Alto Weekly   Jeanne Aufmuth 6/10 "Works enough within its own rules, its own container, but blunts its own real-world impact along the way."   Window to the Movies   Jeffrey Chen "Parental Content Review"   Screen It!   Jim Judy 5/10 " ...tour-de-force performances from Foxx and Downey, but they cannot make up for a story that it is largely commonplace."   DVDTown.com   John J. Puccio 2/5 "The florid visual style of British director Joe Wright (Atonement) drowns out fine though not stellar turns by Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx and lessens the movie’s emotional impact. The uplifting power of music still registers—of cinema, not so much."   Boxoffice Magazine   John P. McCarthy "In the hands of a director more suited to the material The Soloist might have been a deeply moving experience. Here, we know something important is being played out before us, and there are times when it hits home with force. But in their exercise of dram"   Film.com   Jonathan F. Richards 2.5/5 "click to read the full review"   Movies for the Masses   Joseph Proimakis 1.5/5 "In general, I hate these kinds of movies. I find them tedious, boring, pretentious and long-winded."   7M Pictures   Kevin Carr C+ "...a well-acted film that doesn't go particularly anywhere, a film with strong production values whose director appears to lack confidence of vision. It's both overworked and underdone."   Reeling Reviews   Laura Clifford "[A] keening elegy for us, for our society, for how we have utterly failed the most helpless of our own..."   Flick Filosopher   MaryAnn Johanson 3/4 "The title is a lie--this really a tandem act, unthinkable without either of its two central parts."   TheMovieReport.com   Michael Dequina B "Downey's performance is always enthralling, fascinating, and utterly present. But the inconsistency of the rest of the film makes him more of a soloist than intended."   Beliefnet   Nell Minow 3/5 "A genuinely moving story is wrung dry by filmmaking that strains to punch every emotional plot point. Solid performances and some edgy insight can't quite rescue it, although the extraordinary true events retain real power."   Shadows on the Wall   Rich Cline C "If the movie is trying to help us understand what schizophrenia is, it fails in the attempt."   Laramie Movie Scope   Robert Roten B- "The basic contours of the story do emerge from the ill-advised Hollywood stylings … Does Lopez help Ayers? Does Ayers help Lopez? It's messy."   Decent Films Guide   Steven D. Greydanus 10/10 "A film of enormous integrity, it's exquisitely acted, beautifully written, sensitively filmed and filled with memorable moments."   SSG Syndicate   Susan Granger 6/10 "The story surely is interesting, but in this form, not terribly enlightening."   Antagony & Ecstasy   Tim Brayton 1.5/4 "It's true that Lopez can't cure what ails Ayers--but it sure seems like Grant and Wright have the answer for what ails us."   Film Freak Central   Walter Chaw "Click here to see review"   Wolf Entertainment Guide   William Wolf 2/4 "Although Jamie Foxx's performance in 'The Soloist' is worth the ticket price, the film fails to leave audiences with a satisfying ending."   BlackFilm.com   Wilson Morales C+ Read review   Reeling Reviews   Robin Clifford  (1 - 39) of 39 OFCS Rating: 39% Rotten Page   1