'The Soloist': Iron Man and Ray Charles Team Up...to Make You Cry

As previously stated, I love trailers. I am also a bit of a sap. So when you combine the two—and place before me a spot for a movie like The Soloist (with Robert Downey Jr. as a down-on-his-luck journalist who comes across Jamie Foxx’s mentally impaired homeless man who’s also a classically trained musician)—don’t stand anywhere near me unless you want to be irrigated. (My wife actually thought something was wrong when we saw the trailer for The Pursuit of Happyness.)

The thing of it is, I know I’m being manipulated. I know that this trailer pushing my emotional buttons with all the subtlety of a four-year-old hammering at a See and Say. I know all of that, and I don’t care. Give me Downey Jr. punching at the air in anger…and Foxx’s sad, browless eyes looking hurt…and Catherine Keener looking radiantly supportive…and Downey’s narration about what it means to be a friend.

Give me all of that, and you’ve got yourself an arse in the seat. Are you in, or are you out?