The Soloist

Steve Lopez is a normal guy who works as a journalist for the LA Times who is getting bored of his job. He goes around looking for possible columns, never getting involved with the people and things he sees, only ever being in the background, recording what he finds. But when he meets Nathaniel Anthony Ayers, a homeless man he sees across by the Beethoven statue in Pershing square, playing violin, he finds himself immediately hooked, thinking that he found himself another good column.

But what starts as just another story that will be abandoned after its published turns into Lopez first experience with becoming emotionally involved with a story.... and it changes his life.

Lopez learns that Nathaniel is not just a homeless man on the street who thinks he can play violin; Nathaniel used to attend Juilliard school of music when he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. He dropped out of school and ran to L.A., the last known place of residence of his runaway father, where he fell in love with the Beethoven statue in Pershing square and decided to stay.
Steve tries to get some help and a better life for Nathaniel, but Nathaniel's mental condition makes him hard to reach and unwilling to try new things. After the long and stressful building of trust and a friendship, Lopez eventually convinces Nathaniel to live indoors, and he gets him new instruments as Nathaniel's story becomes popular nationwide. However, it proves an impossible task to get Nathaniel to seek psychiatric and medicinal help. Even trying to get Nathaniel to recognize that he's sick triggers a violent outburst in him that nearly destroys the progress that he has made. Nathaniel and Steve are both in need of some saving, but can their odd friendship inadvertently save both of them? Or will Nathaniel be just another nameless story for Steve and Steve another face in the crowd of confusion that mental illness thrust over Nathaniel?