Ironically, the film works best when it simply drops all pretense of a coherent, engaging story and meander into wordless fantasy sequences. (Only Williams is completely wrong for his role, and delivers some cringe-inducing moments of pure ickiness - the last act turns of the script, where the character's intentions turn darker, is an obvious and phony attempt to shoehorn in some last-minute dramatic tension.)Īnother saving grace of 'August Rush' is Sheridan's fine eye for visual composition. Sheridan is helped immeasurably by the casting, especially the very likeable Russell (who proved herself a very fine, capable actress with last year's indie smash 'Waitress'), and little Highmore, who is certainly one of the least grating child actors currently working. Lyla, Louis and August may be stuck in a fairy tale that is annoying and contrived, but I have to admit that they soon grew on me. I suspect that less forgiving viewers than myself will probably be throwing their remotes at the screen within the first ten minutes.īut, as Sheridan proved with her Oscar-nominated screenplay for 'In America' (which was directed by her father, acclaimed filmmaker Jim Sheridan), she does have a knack for placing real, three-dimensional characters in make-believe world. What is most cloying and precious about 'August Rush' is it's absolute refusal to even give us a knowing wink about its own obvious manipulation of our emotions, and it's this kind of shameless pandering that I just find condescending. 'August Rush' is movie that never met a contrivance it didn't like, and writer-director Kristen Sheridan trots out each and every one 'em as if she was Christopher Columbus discovering America. If the film's story sounds absolutely insufferable, it is. Unfortunately, a freak accident (or is it fate?) puts Lyla in a coma, and it is discovered that she's pregnant - wonder what's gonna become of that baby? But Lyla's big bad father (William Sadler) thinks any potential romance will ruin her career, so he becomes the iceberg to her Titanic. They have a meet cute, make love on the roof, and decide the next morning that they are soulmates. After she wanders out onto an empty rooftop after a particularly unrewarding show, she spots famous local Irish singer-songwriter Louis Connell (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers). In the film's parallel "flashback" story, we go back eleven years to meet famous cellist Lyla Novacek (Keri Russell). Eventually drawn to the distant musical sounds of the big city, August winds up penniless and alone, and soon to fall under the auspices of a strange local pied piper (Robin Williams), who runs a makeshift halfway house for other underage musical charges. Blessed with the ability to "imagine" sounds, he can create a symphony out of ordinary surroundings, from a gentle gust of wind to a ray of bright sunshine on a warm summer day. Long ago separated from his parents, he's constantly bullied at his prison-like orphanage, with his only means of emotional survival to escape into a magical world of music. Freddie Highmore stars as an orphan named (God help us) August Rush. On paper, the fable-like qualities of the script read even more cliched than they play out on-screen (if that's possible). I do admire the sheer chutzpah of 'August Rush,' but it doesn't quite hit the right notes. Unfortunately, this is an almost impossible task for any piece of mainstream commercial cinema to accomplish, must less one that mires itself down in narrative coincidences and soggy sentimentality. It attempts, through the visual language of film, to convey that wonderful, immersive feeling one gets when caught up in the intangible rapture of a great piece of music. 'August Rush' is nothing if not ambitious.
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