![]() For instance, when Evan (who is given the stage name “August Rush” by Wizard) needs to know how to play guitar, he simply picks it up and plays as though he’s been doing it for years. Too many things happen without explanation at the exact moment the script requires them too. At some level, it wants us to take this plot seriously, which is ultimately its undoing. I doubt that I have made this sound as corny as it plays.Īugust Rush is clearly a fantasy yet, for my taste, it doesn’t do enough to establish the fact that it takes place in a fantasy universe. Meanwhile, Lyla and Louis hear music too, which leads them each on a trip toward destiny. In Evan, Wizard sees a gold mine, but the kid is smart enough to know when he’s being exploited so he runs off to join Julliard instead. Running away from the boys’ school, he falls in with Wizard (Robin Williams), a…well, what is he anyway? Wizard has a cabal of talented child musicians whom he forces to busk on the New York City streets so he can take a large chunk of the money that passers-by throw them. He also believes that he can hear the music of his unknown parents calling him, despite having long been told that they are dead. Nice guy, huh?Įvan is a musical prodigy who hears tunes in nature. When Lyla delivered young Evan, the not-so-proud grandpa gave the kid away and told his daughter that she’d had a stillborn. He is the product of concert cellist Lyla Novacek (Keri Russell) and struggling rock musician Louis Connelly (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers), who had a brief liaison before Lyla’s stern father whisked her away from romantic temptation to focus on her career. This is the kind of picture that turns you into an uncontrollable commentator so often is it confounding that you may not be able to avoid talking to the screen as you watch.įreddie Highmore stars as Evan, a young orphan who lives in a school for boys. On the surface, it looks like a conventional story, but it doesn’t play like one. In some ways, I’m at a loss to describe this movie. ![]() And nearly stealing the film is young Jamia Simone Nash with her sassy line readings and astonishing voice.If you injected sugar directly into your veins, I still doubt you’d end up with a sensation more sickly sweet than you’d get from watching August Rush. John Mathieson’s inspired cinematography turn contemporary Manhattan into a Dickensian world where an orphan might triumph and people feel the sound of healing music. From gospel and rock to classical and symphonic, music carries its characters and story ever forward to their destiny. It will be played in Central Park, where Lyla is a featured cellist and Louis is nearby, reunited with his old band.Ĭlearly, the film does not work on any realistic level. When August wanders into a church, the pastor (Mykelti Williamson) is so impressed with the boy’s organ composition that he brings the youngster to the Juilliard School of Music. Its sounds resonate in his head: In the whoosh of subway trains, noise from cars, thumps of a basketball and the clatter, hum and buzz of everyday life, he feels music flow through him. His musical gifts explode when he comes to New York. He believes he can reach out to them through music, that they can “hear” each other. Louis, too, gives up music, opting for a business career in San Francisco.Ī kind social worker (Terrence Howard) urges Evan into family placement, but the boy never gives up hope of finding his parents. Shattered, she loses interest in playing and relocates to Chicago, where she teaches music. ![]() When the pregnant Lyla is hit by a car and gives birth prematurely, her father (William Sadler), mindful of her career, gives the infant up for adoption but tells his daughter that her baby died. The two spend the night only to be torn apart by circumstances. ![]() In flashback, a young Irish guitarist-singer, Louis (Rhys Meyers), encounters a shy, young cellist, Lyla (Russell), on a rooftop overlooking the square. It is in Washington Square 11 years ago where Evan was conceived. ![]() Evan (Highmore), whom he renames August Rush, is a child prodigy whose skills reward him with a prime spot in Washington Square. Instead of a gang of young thieves, the “Wizard” (Robin Williams, doing his best with a poorly written role) operates a team of young musicians who live in an abandoned theater and play for money on street corners. “August” adopts the structure of “Oliver Twist” whereby an orphan runs away to New York and falls in with a Fagin-like character. ![]()
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