Sunday “Date Day” ~ The Soloist

Date day was with my son for Mother’s Day.  He took me to this movie and to lunch (Mexican, what else!)

click pic to view & listen

I wanted to see The Soloist because I am a fan of actors Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr.   Sometimes I just see a movie because I want to watch the actors perform.  This movie was quiet and slow.  The music was mesmerizing.  The actors in my opinion were exceptional.  The ending was very touching.  Cry-o-meter, for me,  ~ a seven (7). This movie is based on a true story and chronicles Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez and homeless schizophrenic Nathaniel Ayers, who was once a musical prodigy.  The two form an unlikely friendship in which Lopez feels compelled to fix Nathaniel’s circumstances.  In the end both must accept the limitations of such a fragile relationship. 

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Greater Los Angeles area alone, there are 90,000 homeless people. Homeless due to all kinds of unfortunate circumstances ~ it is beyond my comprehension.
We all have ups and downs in our lives, but we must admit, we virtually live in a bubble. There is so much that goes on around us that we are unaware of or choose not to look at.  It is painful, so why would we want to introduce unnecessary pain into our lives on a daily basis?  Homelessness, poverty, abuse, starvation, war, murder, abduction, mental illness, cancer, degenerative disease and aging.  The list goes on and on.  And here we sit, pounding away on our laptops with our pretty things around us, our fancy cameras, vacations on our minds, food in our cupboards, recipes and pretty decorated cupcakes to share, healthy & happy children.  The list goes on and on. 

It is ok to have the happiness and beauty in our lives that we are so fortunate to have.  It is not ok to turn away from the sadness and ugliness in the world and not look it in the eye because it is too painful for us. 
Each and everyone of us can or will be there one day. A loss of a job, an illness, a disease, divorce, death of a spouse ~ any one of those things can turn our life upside down.  If we just remember that, and always offer a smile, a touch, a look directly in the eye of someone who is in need of a connection or validity that they may have been us at one time, or could have been us.  That is the least we can do.  This is what I took away from the film.  It wasn’t depressing, it was touching and eye-opening. 



Little tidbit about the actors:
Jamie Foxx (more info here)

Date of Birth

13 December 1967, Terrell, Texas, USA

Birth Name

Eric Marlon Bishop

Height

5' 9" (1.75 m)

Mini Biography

Jamie's mother, Louise, was an adopted child. When her marriage to his father failed, his grandparents, Mark and Estelle Talley, stepped in and, at age 7 months, adopted him too. He says he had a very rigid upbringing that placed him in the Boy Scouts and the church choir. During high school, he played quarterback for his high school team and was good enough that he got press in Dallas newspapers. He studied music in college. He released a music album in 1994, "Peep This" and sings the theme song for his 1999 movie, Any Given Sunday (1999). However, in 1989, his life changed when a girl friend challenged him to get up onstage at the Comedy Club. In fact, he says he took his androgynous stage name because he learned that women got preference for mike time on open stage nights. That led to his being cast in "Roc" (1991) and "In Living Color" (1990) and ultimately to his own WB network TV series. He has a daughter, Corrine, born in 1995, who lives with her mother.

Robert Downey, Jr. (there is much more than a tidbit - here)

Date of Birth

4 April 1965, New York City, New York, USA

Birth Name

Robert John Ford - Elias Jr.

Nickname

Bob

Height

5' 8½" (1.74 m)

Mini Biography

Robert John Downey Jr. was born in Greenwich Village, New York City, at 1:10 pm. He's the son of underground filmmaker Robert Downey Sr.. His first part in a movie was in his father's Pound (1970), in which 5-year-old Downey played a puppy. When he was 20 years old, he joined _Saturday Night Live_ (1985) for one season. After that, he went to Hollywood. In 1987, he got the leading role in director James Toback's film The Pick-up Artist (1987), co-starring with Molly Ringwald. The same year, he played drug addict Julian Wells in the movie Less Than Zero (1987). In 1992, he played Charles Chaplin in Sir Richard Attenborough's film Chaplin (1992). For his astonishing performance, he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. In the year 2000, he guest-starred in the comedy series "Ally McBeal" (1997), where he portrayed the attorney Larry Paul, who became Ally's love interest. For that performance, he won the Golden Globe for "best supporting actor in a comedy series." On "Ally McBeal" (1997), Downey got to show that he can sing as well as act, when he sang Joni Mitchell's "River," "Chances Are" as a duet with Vonda Shepard, and "Every Breath You Take" together with Sting. He released one song of his own, "Snakes," on the "Ally McBeal" (1997) album "For Once in My Life," and a full album of his own work entitled "The Futurist" in 2005.