I wanted to like “The Soloist.”

I anticipated the movie’s release for months, partly because of its focus on journalism and story-telling.

Unfortunately, director Joe Wright’s artsy style took away from the movie’s message and left me wanting a documentary film on the topic instead.

The movie focused on the tentative friendship between Steve Lopez, a Los Angeles Times reporter played by Robert Downey, Jr., and Nathaniel Ayers, a homeless man with exceptional musical talents, played by Jamie Foxx.

Wright’s “Pride and Prejudice” is a favorite movie of mine. The movie is visually stunning and romantic. But employing that same style in a movie about true events, “The Soloist,” seemed cheesy and overdone.

The movie does have endearing scenes, like when Lopez and Ayers are rushing to a philharmonic performance, pulling Ayers’s token cart of miscellany along the sidewalk at breakneck speed.

Catherine Keener, Lopez’s ex-wife and editor, sees them through the office window and smiles.

It’s an honest moment, and I wish there had been more like it.

Certain scenes were too dramatic. It was a shame because the movie worked hard to do other things, like authentically portray lay-offs and struggles in newsrooms.

Overdone Moment No. 1: When Lopez gives Ayers a cello, we see Ayers begin to play and then, very suddenly, we are swept up in the sky and floating along with the birds, serenaded by a full orchestra.

Overdone Moment No. 2: Lopez and Ayers attend a philharmonic rehearsal, and while listening to the music, Ayers is clearly in a trance. Unfortunately, we then see flashing colors on the screen for the next few minutes. I sat there wondering why I was watching the Windows Media Player color show at an $8 movie that I could get for free on my computer.

Overdone Moment No. 3: In the last scene, Lopez and Ayers are dancing and laughing with other homeless people.

They are actors, not real people; it was an engineered scene that was the sickly-sweet icing on the overcooked cake. Though I usually stay for the credits during movies, I left right after that.

I appreciated the performances by Downey, Jr. and Foxx, but for a movie hatched from real events, it felt oddly fake.