"The Soloist" tells a story so compelling that not even directorial overkill and Hollywood grooming can do it much damage.

Directed by Joe Wright and written by Susannah Grant, the movie is based on the true story of a Los Angeles Times columnist and the extraordinary homeless man he befriended.

Robert Downey Jr. plays Steve Lopez, the columnist. He works for his ex-wife and is estranged from his son, one of the backstory components that the movie chooses to ignore.

Lopez is scrounging around for a column idea when he hears violin music coming from a nearby park. There he finds Nathaniel Ayers, a homeless man, playing a violin quite well on its only two strings. Lopez introduces himself and learns through Ayers' bizarre ramblings that the musician was once a Juilliard music student.

Lopez begins to investigate the weirdly dressed homeless man played by Jamie Foxx and learns that he indeed is a Juilliard dropout, whose first instrument is the cello. Ayers grew up a prodigy obsessed by classical music in general and Beethoven in particular. But he started hearing voices and dropped out when they made him dysfunctional. The filmmakers establish this through flashbacks, but they don't elaborate on Ayers' descent into homelessness.

Most of the movie focuses on the challenges Lopez faces when forming a friendship he doesn't feel he's ready for. He wants to help Ayers: He takes him to concert rehearsals and a community service shelter, and he even finds him a cello teacher. But Ayers doesn't want to leave the street.

Meanwhile, the columnist's ex-wife accuses him of exploiting Ayers while not committing himself to the full obligations of friendship. The movie at its most interesting explores this conflict while casting a light on mental illness issues such as the right to be left alone.

Wright, who directed "Atonement," is a skillful director with a tendency to add snazzy but self-indulgent flourishes. They tend to create an emotional distance as if you're looking at the characters through the wrong end of a telescope.

Grant's screenplay also hits some bad notes such as the two weak attempts at humor that involve Lopez and urine. Surely, one would have been more than enough.

But the actors are in good form. Downey brings a cocky scruffiness to his role while he receives an epiphany: He can actually connect emotionally with something. Foxx does that most important thing: He submerges his stardom and glamour like Charlize Theron did in "Monster."

Like "Rain Man," "The Soloist" demonstrates the worth of people who live in a world outside the one most of us think of as normal.