Downey, Foxx watchable, but ‘The Soloist’ was a better read

The story of “The Soloist” is relatively new, but it’s already been chronicled in a series of Los Angeles Times columns and a best-selling nonfiction book, and on “60 Minutes.”

But don’t worry — there isn’t anything a true-life inspirational story has that Hollywood can’t embroider. So “The Soloist” changes a few things around and pumps up the drama.

Most importantly, it hands a couple of highly actable roles to Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx, a pair of greyhounds who like to run. And run they do.

“The Soloist” recounts the story of L.A. Times columnist Steve Lopez (Downey), who began writing about a homeless musician he chanced upon one day.

This is Nathaniel Anthony Ayers (Foxx), whose schizophrenia prevents him from seeing the world as it is, although it doesn’t stop him from being an impressive street-corner violinist.

Intrigued by Nathaniel’s claim that he once studied music at Juilliard, Lopez is shocked to confirm that he was a promising cellist there, until his mental illness took over.

The movie is inevitably about the way Lopez helps Nathaniel and also the way the reporter is changed by his newfound friend. That much, especially in the dutiful script by Susannah Grant, is easy to peg.

Director Joe Wright, who did “Atonement,” obviously wants this film to be something more than formula. For one thing, the scenes set against the backdrop of a depressed L.A. homeless shelter are populated with real members of that community, giving the film a sometimes startling dose of the real.

For another, the actors are too brisk, too smart, to let the material get as soppy as it could. Downey’s AK-47 rhythms seem to dictate the way many scenes unfold, which gives them more interest than they might have had with another actor.

Foxx is skillful in his dialogue-heavy monologues, and he understands that this is a story in which his character can’t possibly follow the customary upward arc of so many movie heroes. There’s not going to be any miracle cure in this one.

Those admirable qualities don’t add up to a really good movie, and it’s difficult to see what made the leap from nonfiction to multiplex necessary. Some stories are just fine as newspaper articles.