An average movie

For some reason, probably because of its cast and director, it was a movie I was really eager to check out and I’m rather amazed that it took me more than a decade to finally see the damned thing. For Joe Wright, it was quite a departure from his previous prestigious period dramas based on famous books (‘Pride & Prejudice’ and ‘Atonement’) and it was a good test to see if the guy was the real deal or just some one-trick-pony. Well, since this movie didn’t make much waves after all, I’m afraid Joe Wright never really fulfilled these expectations, even if he definitely had a decent career afterwards though. Concerning the movie itself, it was actually not bad at all and it was dealing with a pretty good story. Unfortunately, it seemed that Wright never managed to figure out how to deal with this homeless guy in specific and the homeless in general. Indeed, at some point, he seemed to go for something really raw but, then, in some other scenes, I thought he tended to somewhat glamorize their lifestyle. Concerning the cast, Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr. were pretty good here but, to be honest, it seems that they didn’t really need to know what to do with Steve Lopez. Indeed, what was he actually going through at the time in his life? What was the actual impact of his relationship with Ayers? To be honest, it seems that they didn’t even try and left it ambiguous just because they had no clue what to do. Concerning Ayers, at least, it was refreshing that the guy didn’t make some incredible come-back on stage which is usually what happens with the genre. Still, in my opinion, there was some kind of plot-hole though. Indeed, the whole idea was that even though he was seriously talented, they displayed that it was and would probably remain impossible for him to perform on stage. However, at some point, he seemed to be perfectly able to perform in the middle of a very crowded homeless shelter. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch though and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

6/10