August Rush

August Rush

reviewed by Jeanne 

Directed by Kirsten Sheridan and featuring; Freddie Hightower, Keri Russell, Jonathon Rhys Meyers and Robin Williams

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Never mind the implausible plot, mostly one dimensional characters, and embarrassingly trite dialgoues . . .if you just sit back and let yourself glide through the movie, [u]August Rush[/u] you might enjoy this modern day fairy tale with some beautiful cinematography and a wonderful sound track.

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 [u]August Rush[/u] tells the story of a querky orphan boy’s quest for his real parents.  The story starts with a flashback to the “Love at First Sight” encounter of Lila (Keri Russell), a young classical cellist and Louis (Jonathon Rhys Meyers), an irish rock-n-roll singer. Yes, in real life we call this a “one-night stand”,but remember this is a Hollywood fairy tale.  The young lovers are separated—but alas, Lila finds herself pregnant.  After an unfortunate accident, Lila wakes up from a coma to learn from her controlling father that the baby was lost.   It turns out that the manipulative father, sorry the evil stepmother was written out of this screenplay, had Lila’s baby put up for adoption.

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Fast forward eleven years, and the boy, Evan, is running away from the state orphanage obsessed with finding his parents.  Evan has a gift for music and believes music will lead him to his long lost mother and father.  Evan falls in with a gang of child street performers and their adult “boss”, Wizard (Robin Williams) who recognizes the young misfit’s talent and renames him “August Rush.”

Soon our young orphan is playing some awesome guitar solos on street corners all over New York City.  These guitar solos are the highlight of the movie and probably worth the $5.50 early show discount ticket even if you have trouble getting through the sappy sweetness of this movie.

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Most of the movie is beautifully photographed and creatively edited, but the plot is so predictable and the characters so shallow that it’s a challenge to let yourself go on this sentimental journey.    If you’re the least bit cynical and over the legal drinking age, you should definitely go for the two drink minimum at happy hour before seeing [u]August Rush[/u]. A couple of gin and tonics will help you brush reality aside and enjoy this film.  

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Young teenagers will find this movie worthwhile if only to google at the leading man, Jonathon Rhys Meyers, and woman, Keri Russell.  Playing to the teens, director Kirsten Sheridan fills the movie with plenty of close-ups of Meyers and Russell, who don’t seem to age a day over the course of the 11 year span of the movie.  

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If you’ve missed [u]August Rush[/u] in the theaters, you’ll most likely find it on the “Spiritual Cinema” shelf at DJs as soon as it comes out on video.