August Rush Review
by Jonathan Moya (jjmoya1955 AT yahoo DOT com)December 8th, 2007
August Rush (2007)
A Movie Review by Jonathan Moya
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 or B+
The Review:
August Rush is a visual rhapsody-- a genuinely charming fairy tale of a musical prodigy who wills himself a family by wishful composition. Visually it is a mixture of Close Encounters of the third Kind and Field of Dreams, with a dollop of Forest Gump. Structurally it is Oliver Twist without the politics and social commentary.
August Rush is an orphan who like all other orphans still believes that some day his parents will come back to claim him.
He is acutely in tune with the music of the world. He can be found in the local crop field conducting a symphony as the wind breathes harmonic noise through the wheat- the soft swirls of stalks bending almost into musical notes.
He tells the social worker handling his case (Terence Howard caught in a fog of sadness and loneliness) "The music. I though if I could play it, they would know I was alive. And find me."
"I believe in music the way some people believe in fairy tales. But I hear it came from my mother and father. Once upon a time, they fell in love," he continues.
August's mom is a muse, Lyla Novacek (Keri Russell of Waitress scrubbed to an ivory glow till she is radiantly pure) a concert cellist who falls in love with Louis Connelly, (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers) a male muse (a museum-is that the word?) transfigured into the lead singer of a musical band of Irish brothers. August is the harmonic convergence that results. Lyla's father, Thomas Novacek (William Sadler) a jealous manager of his daughter career, forces the lovers to separate and later when the pregnant Lyla is involved in a serious traffic accident, secretly places the baby into an orphanage.
Eleven years and sixteen days later (the kid has been keeping count) August feels a musical echo of their existence and runs away from the orphanage, the compulsion (one of the many notes of Close Encounters that pop up) leading him towards Greenwich Village, the start of his composition. Lyla feels the same tug- and soon Louis is leaving his white collar life adopting the torn blue jeans of his past and also heading to New York.
August comes under the sponsorship of Wizard (Robin Williams channeling Bono via way of a drugstore cowboy), a Fagin with his own gang of street musician children. Wizard encourages August's talent, aiming to use the boy as his ticket out of homelessness.
The raging symphony building inside of August forces him to split from Wizard and eventually he wanders into Julliard where the faculty adopts the prodigy, teaching him the skills needed to finish the Rhapsody humming inside of him. After what seems only two weeks he has finished his course requirements- and the resulting August Rush Rhapsody in C is chosen as the headline talent of a new young composers and musician's concert that will have a Central Park debut. Guest who is featured as one of the opening acts?
Kristen Sheridan a few years back garnered an Oscar nomination for co-penning along with her father Jim Sheridan (the director of My Left Foot and In the Name of Father) and her sister Naomi (a poet and writer) the ultimate immigrant fairy tale In America, which daddy Jim also directed. It was the perfect balance of the American Immigrant Dream and immigrant angst.
August Rush is pretty much an adorned fairy tale that proudly shows it heart. It's filled with all the elemental tug, eyes to the skies wonder of Close Encounters without the alien worship. There are even subtle homage's to John Williams in the Mark Macina score.
The screenwriters, Nick Castle (Hook) and James V. Hart (Contact) burnish all the coincidences with the ring of fate while letting the musical subtheme propel the story forward with emotional warmth and a big squishy heart.
Kirsten Sheridan layers it all with unblinking childlike innocence. She gets the notes right, letting the fragments hang tantalizing in the air until Augusts' composition pulls it all together. Pieces could be heard in the wheat field, in the swoosh of the underground and ambient rhythm of traffic. Sheridan gives the audience the first chords knowing that she can count on us to listen for the rest. Though the final product sounds more Mr. Holland's Opus than Mozart (another child prodigy) it sings with the joy of mother, father and child reunion.
Only a few wrong notes mar the composition. The constant refrain of "Run, August run" adds an unintentional layer of Forest Gumpiness. And Augusts' insistence of if he writes it, sings it, composes it they will come is just a fillip of "If you build it, they will come" from Field of Dreams- adding another obvious layer of unneeded symbolism.
Even with all its faults, August Rush is the best heart warming family picture I've seen this year.
It gets a B+.
The Credits:
Directed by Kirsten Sheridan; written by Nick Castle and James V. Hart, based on a story by Paul Castro and Mr. Castle; director of photography, John Mathieson; edited by William Steinkamp; music by Mark Mancina; production designer, Michael Shaw; produced by Richard Barton Lewis; released by Warner Brothers Pictures. Running time: 1 hour 52 minutes.
WITH: Freddie Highmore (August Rush), Keri Russell (Lyla Novacek), Jonathan Rhys Meyers (Louis Connelly), Terrence Howard (Richard Jeffries), Robin Williams (Wizard) and William Sadler (Thomas Novacek).
"August Rush" is rated PG (Parental Guidance suggested). The title character was conceived out of wedlock.
Copyright 2007 by Jonathan Moya
http://www.jonathanmoya.com/
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
