by rick grant rickgrant01@comcast.net
B Rated PG 100 min
This mystical story is gushingly sentimental and ridiculously predictable. However, even when I knew my emotions were being manipulated like bread dough, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of joy and relate to the premise–that music is the voice of the universal spirit and can bring a fragmented family together, who were biologically tuned into its frequency. Yes, it’s a sticky sweet tale taken from Oliver Twist about an orphan boy, August Rush – a stage name he adopted – deftly portrayed by Freddie Highmore, who is a born musical genius. The boy is driven by a strong belief that he will find his biological Mom and Dad through the music he sees and hears in his head.
Taunted by incorrigible kids in the boy’s home, he escapes at the age of 12 and makes his way to NYC, where he meets a fellow orphan playing on the street for tips. The boy works for an exploitative street person, Wizard (Robin Williams). August is bursting with music in his mind and soul. As soon as he borrows the other boy’s guitar, he begins to play it like a percussion instrument, making it sing like an orchestra. Suddenly, August is Wizard’s new ticket to ride. August is taken back to an old closed down theater where Wizard lords over a ragtag group of street kids, making them work for him. Robin Williams flamboyantly portrays Wizard as mentor and abuser to this budding prodigy who can write and play music without any instruction.
Keri Russell plays August’s mother, Lyla Novacek, who is a solo cellist with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. Her father is omnipresent in her life and doesn’t allow her to have any freedom or social life. One night, she meets another musician, Louis (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), who sings lead with a rock band.
Fireworks go off and Lyla and Louis find love at first sight. That night they sleep together, but he must tour with his band and she is committed to a series of concerts. So they go their separate ways. Oops, Lyla is knocked up with Mozart’s second coming. She goes through a difficult birth and her dad tells her the baby is dead. But he gave the baby up for adoption and forged her name on the paperwork.
Lyla finally finds out she has a son, now 12, when her father tells her the truth on his deathbed. She is devastated and immediately starts looking for him. By now, August is playing and writing music. Strangely, she hears his music in her head and follows it seeking information. This is when the mystical elements of this fairytale kick in as August is discovered by a kindly minister when August starts playing the pipe organ and composing music. Then he is accepted in the prestigious Julliard School of Music. Before long he’s written his first symphony and the New York Philharmonic agrees to perform it. The way the music is woven into the fabric of the film is brilliantly orchestrated, as August hears the world as one continuous musical performance.
In terms of making an emotionally sensational movie, director Kirsten Sheridan’s scenario shamelessly goes for the sentimental jugular. Still, I was moved by Freddie Highmore’s heart felt performance as August. Keri Russell, who is a superb actress with a wide range, brought out Lyla’s soaring spirit as a cellist and her deep abiding faith that she would find her son. Jonathan Rhys Meyers, who stars in Showtime’s The Tutors, plays the conflicted rock musician with restraint and convincing reality. Terrence Howard has a small but pivotal role as the minister who discovers August’s genius and helps him find the right people to help him.
Yes, I was a sucker and let the movie manipulate my emotions and I didn’t even feel cheap or used.
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EU Critic’s Choice Awards
