Word: columnists
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...based on the real story of Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez's (Downey) relationship with a homeless schizophrenic named Nathaniel Anthony Ayers (Foxx), whom he met in a downtown LA park in 2005. Ayers was playing a violin during that first encounter, apparently quite well, despite it having only two strings. He had been a Juilliard student in the 1970s, until mental illness cost him just about everything but his love for music. That year, Lopez wrote nearly a dozen columns detailing his attempts to understand and assist Ayers and, in 2008, published a book about their friendship...
...what elevates The Soloist into the ranks of the best newspaper movies is its honesty. The columnist wants that column, and maybe a follow up, and yes, making a sorry life less sad is good, but he never wanted to become a defacto one-man Social Services Agency. He can't cure Ayers and no one is trying to gloss over that reality here (except for one scene at the end that contradicts what we've come to know about Ayers' ability to cope with crowds). All Lopez can do is try to help, and the movie gives testimony...
...with pain, as off-camera, another one of her employees is advised to take a buyout. As Lopez reports from his desk, a freshly laid-off journalist trails a security guard out of the building. Yet The Soloist still makes you want to run out and be a newspaper columnist. Crazy? Maybe a little. Certainly most industry observers would gently suggest you choose a more obtainable, sensible goal and, given the economy, it's unlikely The Soloist will cause a run on journalism schools the way All the President's Men did in 1976. But perhaps at the least, appreciative...
Baer is a former Middle East CIA field officer and TIME.com's intelligence columnist...
...with security and stability increasingly in doubt, it's becoming clear that more urgent action is needed beyond financial donations aimed at institution-building. Neither Zardari nor opposition leaders have been able to come up with answers to the insurgency. Columnist Kamila Hyat, writing in The News, called for an overhaul of current strategies, including reaching out to Pakistan's old foe, India. If Pakistan doesn't have to worry about protecting its eastern flank, she argued, it can concentrate on solving its internal problems. "The only option for Pakistan is to break free of the militant grip, focus...