This saccharine fact-based tale stars Jamie Foxx as a musically gifted down-and-out with mental-health issues, with Robert Downey Jr as the jaded journalist who wants to elevate him from kerbside to concert stage after he hears him playing a beaten-up violin near his Los Angeles office. Essentially a buddy-movie version of Shine, this is adequately if unimaginatively directed by Joe Wright (Atonement), who is a little over-literal in his portrayal of the redemptive power of music. But the leads strike the right notes, in Foxx's case, maybe, rather too many of them - his Rain Man ramblings do get a little irritating.

A Los Angeles journalist befriends a homeless Juilliard-trained musician, while looking for a new article for the paper.