There are not many movies where I leave the theater completely drowned in the thoughts that the movie brought to mind, but last night, I had such an emotional experience watching The Soloist. If you're not familiar, the movie is a factitious story about a L.A. Times journalist, Steve Lopez, who befriends Nathaniel Anthony Ayers, a homeless man who happens to be a musical genius robbed of his dreams by mental illness. He's a paranoid schizophrenic unable to successfully function because he is tormented by the voices in his head.
The Soloist was a beautiful story of grace and redemption...much like that of the gospel. You see Steve, a prestigious journalist, humble himself to love and befriend a man that most of the world ignores. Once Steve gets to know Nathaniel his eyes are opened to see his spirit. Underneath his dirty appearance, his cart full of garbage and his craziness, Steve sees a passionate man with an unbelievable gift and a love that he's never known. Steve blesses Nathaniel with opportunity that he had given up on...He even calls Steve his God. Sound familiar? God blesses his people with the same love, grace and redemption.
Towards the end of the movie, Nathaniel's mental illness causes him to turn on Steve. He starts beating Steve up and threatened to "cut him like a fish." But surprisingly, Steve doesn't give up on Nathaniel. Instead, he returns to Skid Row to find his friend and treats him as though the incident never happened. You see in Nathaniel's eyes that this is a love that he has never experienced before. Isn't that how we are with God? In spite of His unfailing love and blessing, we deny, disobey and sin against Him, but yet He continues to love us as if nothing happened. What a beautiful picture of grace!
What else broke me about The Soloist is the reality of the situation. When I have spent time with the homeless in the past, the majority of them are mentally disturbed, but I've never thought much about their lives before the streets...I've never imagined that at one time, they could have had a legitimately promising future. After seeing this movie, I believe there are many Nathaniels out there on the streets. There's 90,000 homeless in the streets of L.A. alone, and so many of these people had dreams, had ambitions, had a future...and they were robbed by mental illness. They are out there wandering the streets confused, displaced and dismissed from society. This movie showed the power that simple love and friendship can have on the spirit of a person...everyone needs a friend and to be shown the love of Jesus.
If you haven't seen The Soloist, go see it.
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