Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez’s best-seller about how he befriended and tried to help a talented but mentally ill homeless man who loves to play classical music on the streets isn't an easy book to film. But the film, starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx, surprisingly gets a fair portion of it right. Grade: B.   

Steve Lopez, a busy human-interest columnist for The Los Angeles Times, was walking back to his downtown office some years ago when he spotted a homeless man on a street corner who was dressed in rags and playing Beethoven on a battered violin. Lopez slowly got to know him and wrote a series of popular columns that turned into a book last year, 'The Soloist,' as well as a movie starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx that will be released in April.   

Steve Lopez, metro columnist for The Los Angeles Times, was walking around downtown one day when he saw a shabbily dressed homeless man serenely playing Beethoven on his battered violin at a street corner. He was intrigued -- and, of course, looking for column material. "Violin man. It's got potential," Lopez recalls thinking in his book about the relationship that resulted from that encounter.