This:

“As it turns out, the movie is a strikingly downbeat look at the lives of the homeless, anchored in scary, dismal, and frequently moving scenes at a local shelter. The setup promises redemption and triumph, and the movie delivers, in a way. But it also looks honestly at the intractable problems of dealing with the mentally ill who roam our streets.”

...Is what caused me to cave in and screen The Soloist. Good thing too – trailers of it on the small screen (idiot box, whatever you’d like to call it) made me think of your usual feel-good buddy-buddy flick, cue barf foley here. What I got instead was a genuinely moving, not saccharine, well-acted sliver of realism. 8.5 out of 10. And now I’m looking to get the book, see if it’s just as good.

(Review snippet from http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/the-soloist/Film?oid=978012). Thank you J.R. Jones.