Top 10 Extraordinary Friendships in films
Emotionally soaring drama "The Soloist", about the redemptive power of music hits cinemas nationwide from Friday 25th September.
Journalist Steve Lopez (Oscar® nominee Robert Downey Jr.) discovers Nathaniel Anthony Ayers (Oscar® winner Jamie Foxx), a former classical music prodigy, playing his violin on the streets of L.A. As Lopez endeavors to help the homeless man find his way back, a unique friendship is formed, one that transforms both their lives.
Steve Lopez and Nathaniel Ayers had a truly extraordinary relationship that changed both their lives forever. Through this insightful feature we take a look back at other famous movies that inspired some of the all time grate movie friendships.
 | In Sophia Coppola's Oscar-winning existential comedy-drama, bored twenty-something graduate Charlotte (Johansson) bonds with middle-aged television actor Bob (Murray) at a Tokyo hotel. Inexplicably connected by their intense sense of alienation, a cool distaste for carpet samples and their relative inability to communicate with the Japanese natives, their union is a meaningful but ultimately transitory one...
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 | 9. About a Boy Hugh Grant becomes the unwitting foster pal of a troubled teen in this charming Nick Hornby novel adaptation. Lazy-and-selfish Will Freeman (Grant) lives off royalties from his father's famous Christmas jingle and picks up women by gate-crashing single parent groups. That is until Marcus, an eccentric 12-year-old with a bowl haircut, enters his life... Featuring a winning turn from the brilliant Toni Collette as Marcus's suicidal Mum, About a Boy is a remarkably bittersweet treat.
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 | View Image Gallery (12) Released on DVD and Blu-ray this week, State of Play sees whiskey swilling traditional grumpy hack Cal McAffrey (Russell Crowe) forced to team up with Rachel McAdams' Della Fry - a blogger not much older than Cal's ancient computer. Despite mutual distrust, several assignation attempts (not on each other) and some questionable decisions by old Cal, eventually the lure of Rachel McAdams big blue eyes is too much to resist and they finally reach a middle ground - somewhere around Windows 98.
*have dinner with a lady friend. |
 | Grumpy, blunt, misanthropic homophobe Melvin (Jack Nicholson) grudgingly befriends his neighbor, gay artist Simon (Greg Kinnear), when he becomes the victim of a homophobic attack. In return for caring for his small, furry dog, sensitive Simon attempts to help his new pal Melvin win the affections of Carol, a single mother and waitress played by Helen Hunt.
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 | Box Office darlings Whoopi Goldberg and Drew Barrymore join mousey Mary-Louise Parker in this tragic sisterhood road-trip movie with romantic undertones. Although never achieving the mainstream success of Thelma and Louise it did boast one of the most baffling ‘odd couple' set-ups in cinematic history: uptight real estate seller Robin (Parker) needs a cross-country ride to escape New York after unknowingly contracting HIV from a barman; unfortunately, the only person who responds to her advert is wayward lesbian musician Jane (Goldberg), who develops a crush on the dying woman.
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 | 5. Sideways ivorced, unpublished depressive Miles goes on a wine-tasting tour with his gregarious soon-to-be-married friend Jack, who is intent on sowing some last, wild oats whilst Miles schedules several weeks of relaxing, fine cuisine and golf. How these two characters ever became friends in the first place in somewhat improbable, Jack being a feckless, impulsive, uncultured lothario and Miles a neurotic, pretentious, self-loathing introvert. Still, they help each other through a tangle of mid-life crises on the last-chance trip that almost breaks their brotherly bond.
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 | 4. Leon A contracted killer and a lonely little girl played by Natalie Portman? Yes, really. When 12-year-old Mathilda's entire family are murdered by corrupt DEA agents, she seeks sanctuary with her neighbor Leon, a hitman ‘cleaner' who teaches her the tricks of his trade. Soon enough Mathilda longs to become a ‘cleaner' too, to avenge the death of her younger brother.
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 | 3. Fight Club A listless, unnamed insomniac played by Ed Norton befriends brassy soap salesman Tyler Durden at the lowest point of his life. A discussion on the subject of materialism quickly leads to heated fisticuffs, which the protagonist finds strangely cathartic. Hence the titular ‘Fight Club' is formed. Still, nonsensical, immoral Tyler continues to grate on the nerves, particularly when he starts sleeping with the mad, morbid, therapy-addicted Marla Singer...
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 | 2. Let The Right One In There are few friendships more unlikely than that between meek, frequently-bullied 12-year-old Swede Oscar and a bloodthirsty little vampire named Eli who lives with a pedophile, and yet, this strange pair find comfort and solace in puzzles and Morse code messaging.
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 | 1. The Soloist Newspaper columnist Steve Lopez (Robert Downey Jnr.) discovers a schizophrenic musical prodigy playing violin on the streets of Los Angeles one day. He begins to write often about this man, Nathaniel Ayers (Jamie Foxx), in his weekly column, becoming inspired and eventually obsessed by his mysterious gifts and his colourful, checkered history.
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| The Soloist is released on the 25th September | |
| For more information please visit the official website: http://www.thesoloistmovie.co.uk/ | |