The Soloist...

‘Something’s missing!’ We know that experience. The frustrating final piece of a jigsaw, the absent taste from a meal. Frequently though the anxiety comes from not quite being able to place that thing, without which the whole seems incomplete. Everything seems to be present, yet we are still conscious of a, sometimes gaping, hole.

In the recent film ‘The Soloist’ that question is explored. An adaptation of a true story, originally recorded in LA journalist’s Steve Lopez’s award winning book, the film records the relationship between Lopez himself and Nathaniel Ayers, a homeless man he comes across after hearing him playing Beethoven on a beaten up, 2-stringed violin in a city subway. Nathaniel clearly has plenty of holes in his life, a childhood musical prodigy, schizophrenia has robbed him of his promising career, and almost everything else besides. Lopez on the other hand, celebrated and successful, seems to be much more ‘complete’.

Near the beginning of their relationship Lopez asks Nathaniel, what is his greatest desire? “To find my other 2 strings” is his answer, and that search sets up the remainder of the film. What might they be, those things that would enable him to play, once again, to his full potential, and where on earth might he find them?

Christian imagery abounds. Large illuminated crosses adorn the homeless charity’s premises. As Nathaniel struggles with the chaos of city life he recites the Lord’s prayer. A professional musician, tries, unsuccessfully, to exert his evangelical influence yet, in a flashback, Nathaniel’s mother affirms that when she listens to him play she hears the voice of God. All of this serves as a backdrop to an evolving friendship which is seen as being transformative in itself. At one point Lopez tries to explain to his ex-wife, the influence that Nathaniel and his music is having on him. "It’s Grace”, she whispers in his ear.

At the conclusion of the film, Nathaniel is off the streets, but any recovery is acknowledged as very fragile, Lopez though is profoundly changed, he seems to have found what he didn’t know was missing.

What were those strings? That which was missing yet proved to be so profoundly life enhancing. Not so much the obvious things, the provision of an apartment, simple recourse to medication, or the trite slogans of religion, but friendship and faith, community and beauty … something like grace.