August Rush
This is one instance in which there is truth in advertising. That is to say, if you took one look at the trailer for this romantic drama and pegged it as shamelessly manipulative, blatantly sentimental, and calculated for maximum tear drainage. Make no mistake- this is exactly the same type of movie you will see…
…and I fell for it hook, line, and sinker. The central story is just too damn compelling, and the characters so well-written and acted. Plus, it’s about music, so you know it’s gonna get some love from me. But here’s the thing- not every movie about music will automatically receive my ringing endorsement; it’s approach to it on an aesthetic and personal level has to mirror my own, which is why “Mr. Holland’s Opus,” a film every bit as shameless as this one, is still one I can watch over and over again. Like that film, this one will no doubt find its’ way into my rotation, no matter how much I find myself wading in sap.
It all starts with a night in the mid-’90s. Lyla (Keri Russell) is a concert cellist coming off of a successful performance with the New York Philharmonic. Louis (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) is a guitarist and lead singer in a bar band playing around town. Through what might otherwise be known as serendipity were the film not so terribly obvious, they find each other on a New York rooftop, each getting away from a party. They share a magical night together, interrupted by Lyla’s need to get back to her domineering father. They only see each other once more after that night- when she’s being pushed into a limo by her father on the way to the airport, but the impact of that night on each is imprinted on each long after. Eventually, both fall out of music- Louis because he can’t shake her memory, Lyla because she found herself pregnant after that night, and she hasn’t seen her child since giving birth to it. Her father says it died in childbirth…
…but in actuality, he was put up for adoption. Now 11, Evan Taylor (Freddie Highmore) is picked on by the other kids at the orphanage he’s been at all his life. He claims he can feel the music that will deliver him back to his parents. The social worker (the reliably excellent Terrence Howard) he talks to has heard similar stories before, but feels that there’s something more to Evan. Eventually, Evan runs away from the orphanage, ending up on the streets of New York where he’s taken in by a street musician named Wizard (Robin Williams, in what has to be his best performance in forever in a mainstream movie), who takes in kids with musical ability and takes the money they get on street corners. One night, Evan picks up Wizard’s guitar, and a prodigy is discovered. All the while, a restless Lyla- told the truth by her dying father- goes searching for Evan (now August Rush), while Louis goes searching for Lyla.
How this ends up with all three finding one another in Central Park during a New York Philharmonic concert is pure Hollywood, but three things make the predictable screenplay by Nick Castle and James V. Hart bearable, and ultimately winning: the music (a combination of original songs- including some performed by Rhys Meyers himself- and Mark Mancina’s inspired score), the performances (Highmore, Russell, and Rhys Meyers all deliver wonderful and magnetic performances), and the pure love of music director Kristen Sheridan (yes, the daughter of “My Left Foot” director Jim Sheridan) infuses in the film. At one point in the film, Wizard says that music is “God’s little reminder that there’s something else besides us in this universe; harmonic connection between all living beings, every where, even the stars.” As sentimental as the film gets, “August Rush” progresses in a way that makes you completely believe that in every frame. It’s a genuine winner.
