Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on August 2009

©2008 DREAMWORKS LLC and UNIVERSAL STUDIOS

It’s Jamie Foxx’s turn to do the Rain Man thing in this true story about a Los Angeles Times columnist (Robert Downey Jr.) who befriends a homeless, schizophrenic musical savant and makes him famous. I was dutifully moved at times and even morally indignant, but possibly not as uplifted as I was intended to be. Although it’s directed by Joe Wright (Atonement) and written by Susannah Grant (In Her Shoes, Erin Brockovich), it feels oddly incomplete. What I did like was its restraint, its fresh viewpoint on homelessness, and its gritty honesty and acceptance of reality.