august rush movie review

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Here is a movie drenched in sentimentality, but it's supposed to be. I dislike sentimentality where it doesn't belong, but there's something brave about the way "August Rush" declares itself and goes all the way with coincidence, melodrama and skillful tear-jerking. I think more sensitive younger viewers, in particular, might really like it.

The story is a very free modern adaptation of elements from Oliver Twist. We meet Evan Taylor ( Freddie Highmore ), an 11-year-old who runs away from his orphanage rather than be placed with a foster family. He has been told that his parents are still alive and were musicians, and he believes that through the power of music he can find them again. Do you begin to see what I mean about sentimentality?

As it happens, his parents were musicians, and they met through their music. Lyla ( Keri Russell ) was a cellist and Louis (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) was an Irish rock singer, and in a flashback, we see them meeting in Greenwich Village, falling in love at first sight, and making love so very discreetly that they remain safely within the PG rating. They promise to meet again, but Lyla's stage-door father ( William Sadler )forces her to leave town for career reasons, and they have no way to contact each other. Young lovers, learn from the movies and always remember: Exchange cell numbers! Inevitably, she is pregnant (otherwise they wouldn't be Evan's parents, now would they?), but her father tells her the baby died, and ships Evan to an orphanage. Nothing must interfere with Lyla's career.

Back to the present again. The runaway Evan sees some street musicians in Washington Square Park, picks up a guitar and, despite having had no training, turns out to be a naturally gifted musician. Another young musician (Leon G. Thomas III), who is not called the Artful Dodger but should be, hears Evan and takes him back to an abandoned theater, where he and other young lads live under the management of a character who is called the Wizard ( Robin Williams ), but could be called Fagin. He sends his little army out into the streets every day, not as pickpockets but as buskers. Only in a movie like "August Rush" could the endless practical and legal problems suggested by this arrangement be considered plausible.

The Wizard, who dresses like a drugstore cowboy, spots Evan's talent and introduces him to the world as "August Rush." August believes, really believes, that music has the power to bring people together, and finds a sympathizer when he comes upon a church choir where the preacher turns out to have connections at Juilliard. So, yes, August is discovered as a child genius, and quickly earns the right to conduct his own symphony at an outdoor concert in Central Park, where he proves himself an expert conductor and (gasp!) his mother is the cellist and his father is nearby, both of them still under the spell of their long-lost love, and ...

I'm telling you, the ghost of Dickens would be applauding. The movie, directed by Kirsten Sheridan and written by Nick Castle , James V. Hart and Paul Castro , pulls out all the stops, invents new ones and pulls them out too. But it has a light-footed, cheerful way about its contrivances, and Freddie Highmore (" Finding Neverland ") is so open and winning that he makes August seem completely sincere. One touch of craftiness would sink the whole enterprise.

Another quality about the movie is that it seems to sincerely love music as much as August does. If you're going to lay it on this thick, you can't compromise, and Sheridan doesn't. I don't have some imaginary barrier in my mind beyond which a movie dare not go. I'd rather "August Rush" went the whole way than just be lukewarm about it. Yes, some older viewers will groan, but I think up to a certain age, kids will buy it, and in imagining their response, I enjoyed my own.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film credits.

August Rush (2007)

Rated PG for some thematic elements, mild violence and language

114 minutes

Freddie Highmore as Evan/August

Keri Russell as Lyla

Jonathan Rhys-Meyers as Louis

Robin Williams as Wizard

William Sadler as Lyla's father

• James V. Hart
• Nick Castle
• Paul Castro

Directed by

• Kirsten Sheridan

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Movie Review | 'August Rush'

Is That Music We Hear or a Tyke’s Beating Heart?

By Stephen Holden

• Nov. 21, 2007

To describe “August Rush” as a piece of shameless hokum doesn’t quite do justice to the potentially shock-inducing sugar content of this contemporary fairy tale about a homeless, musically gifted miracle child. August Rush (Freddie Highmore) hears music everywhere. Whether it’s the wind in the grass or the roar of a subway, the sounds of the world are a symphony to his ears, and the movie’s soundtrack offers a Hollywood realization of a John Cage idea in which all sounds are music.

August, introduced as Evan Taylor, has absolute faith that music will mystically reunite him with his parents, who he is certain must be somewhere out there, although he has no clues to their identity. As we learn early in the movie, those parents — Louis Connelly (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), an Irish rock singer with a musical sweet tooth, and Lyla Novacek (Keri Russell), a classical cellist — fell in love at first sight and conceived him on a rooftop overlooking Washington Square but were kept apart by her conniving, ambitious father (William Sadler).

Months after their night of love, the pregnant Lyla is hit by a car and gives birth prematurely. In the most preposterous of the many ludicrous plot twists in a movie whose continuity is flimsy at best, her father forges her signature on adoption papers, gives the baby away, then tells her it died. Louis and Lyla abandon their performing careers and morosely search for they know not what.

In the meantime, Evan flees from a group home in New Jersey to New York City, where he falls in with a band of runaways living in the old Fillmore East Theater in the East Village. Here, Wizard (Robin Williams), the Fagin character in the movie’s “Oliver Twist”-inspired subplot, reigns as their cunning surrogate father who collects and distributes their earnings from panhandling.

When Evan, who has never touched a musical instrument, picks up a guitar for the first time and plays it like a pro, Wizard christens him August Rush, a rock-star-worthy name taken from the side of a truck, and seeing a potential gold mine exploits August for every penny he can earn. After the boy demonstrates the same talent on a church organ, there is no stopping his meteoric ascent. In six months he is conducting a symphony orchestra performance of his original composition on the Great Lawn in Central Park.

The movie, directed by Kirsten Sheridan from a screenplay by Nick Castle and James V. Hart, is acted in a style best described as overawed. Oblivious to persecution and exploitation, Mr. Highmore’s August glides through the movie with a beatific smile on his face. Mr. Rhys Meyers and Ms. Russell, who have no romantic chemistry, wander about in an emotional limbo.

There is a lot of music in “August Rush.” But except for a couple of gospel songs, most of it, including August’s “Rhapsody” (composed by Mark Mancina), is amorphous, pumped-up schlock.

“August Rush” is rated PG (Parental Guidance suggested). The title character was conceived out of wedlock.

AUGUST RUSH

Opens today nationwide.

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).

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• DVD & Streaming

August Rush

• Comedy , Drama , Musical

Content Caution

In Theaters

• Freddie Highmore as Evan Taylor/August Rush; Keri Russell as Lyla Novacek; Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Louis Connelly; Robin Williams as Wizard; Terrence Howard as Richard Jeffries

Home Release Date

• Kirsten Sheridan

Distributor

• Warner Bros.

Movie Review

Everyone thinks 11-year-old Evan Taylor is a strange child. He hears music in everything—the wind, the grass, electrical lines and traffic. So much so that he gets completely caught up in it. And he can’t keep quiet about it. That would be enough to make him an outcast among any group of peers, but in the orphanage where he has spent his entire life, it makes him an outright target for bullies.

Evan insists that the music he hears is his connection to his parents, whom he has never known. On that inspiration, he runs away from the children’s home to search for them. He doesn’t know who they are. He doesn’t know where they are. He doesn’t even know if they’re still together. But he’s determined that the music inside will lead him to them.

Along the way, he falls in with Wizard, an unsettling cross between U2’s Bono and Oliver Twist ‘s Fagan. Wizard is an entrepreneur of sorts who allows a band of child musicians to live with him in a condemned theater. In return, he gets the lion’s share of the money they make playing music on the street in New York City. Under Wizard’s tutelage, Evan discovers that he’s not strange—he’s just strangely gifted. In fact, he’s a musical prodigy in the image of Mozart. He adopts the stage name August Rush and quickly becomes Wizard’s biggest moneymaker.

He eventually scores a spot at Juilliard, where the full scope of his talent is unleashed. Wizard isn’t happy about August’s formal training, though, and the two part company. But for August, the kind of musical training he receives isn’t what’s important. For one, he’s compelled to make music, and the method hardly matters. Even more than that, the music is a means to a better end. No matter how much notoriety he receives for his genius, music will never really fulfill him unless it leads him to his parents.

Positive Elements

August Rush ‘s driving force is the title character’s unwavering belief that his parents do want him. This optimism sustains him and pushes him forward in hopes of the reunion of his disjoined family.

Several adults come into August’s life as positive, encouraging influences. Not the least of these is Richard Jeffries. His job at the Department of Child Services is, for Jeffries at least, much more than a job. He goes out of his way to help August, even giving the boy his phone number and telling him to call if he ever needs anything.

Much attention is given to the power of music and the beauty that exists in the world around us, if we will only recognize it. The fact that August is ultimately encouraged to develop his gift, rather than stifling it, might prompt children in the audience to do the same.

Spiritual Elements

Several lines pertaining to music sound vaguely spiritual. For example, August says, “The music is everywhere. All you have to do is open yourself up,” and, “It’s a harmonic connection between everyone in the universe, including the stars.” One comment makes a direct connection between music and the divine: “Music is God’s reminder that there’s something besides us in this universe.”

After he runs away from the orphanage and from Wizard, August stumbles into a downtown church where a gospel choir is practicing. A sign there says, “God is love.” August strikes up a friendship with Hope, a cute soloist about his age, and with the Reverend Jay, who is an intelligent, strong, kindhearted father figure to both kids. Jay’s church houses homeless people and feeds them. He’s also proactive about getting August into Juilliard. When a crisis arises in the boy’s life, the pastor says to Hope, “I prayed for him. Did you?”

Sexual Content

In a flashback, we see August’s young parents meet, hold hands and kiss—all in the space of about five minutes. It’s implied that they also have sex that same night. Visually, though, the scene is relatively discreet: Audiences see the two wake up in bed together, and they are both fully clothed. Later, August’s father describes the encounter as “the most incredible night of my life.” Other teens are shown making out in a stairwell at a party.

Violent Content

Two young-adult brothers get into a disagreement that leads to a wrestling match and ends with one of them getting punched in the face. August runs out in front of a car and is hit, but not hard. It’s implied that another character is hit by a car—hard enough to do serious damage. Wizard pulls a knife on one of the boys in the theater. Later, he tackles a police officer. In retaliation for his cruelty and selfishness, Arthur, one of the other children who lives in Wizard’s theater, breaks a guitar over Wizard’s head and knocks him out.

Crude or Profane Language

Crudities “h—” and “a–” are each spoken once; “d–n” a handful of times (primarily by a child). God’s name is misused once, and the phrase “good lordy” also pops up once. The expression “holy …” trails off midway through.

Drug and Alcohol Content

Band members share beers at a party. Arthur tells August that he’s homeless because his “pops was a drunk” and his “mama took off with a crackhead named Little Jesus.”

Other Negative Elements

August endures constant bullying at the orphanage. Mean tactics employed by his persecutors include waking him up in the middle of the night, pinning him to the wall and pounding their fists near his head to scare him, teasing him about his desire to find his parents, and making his friend call him a “freak” to his face. Even a teacher verbally picks on August and his friend for being different.

Though he inspires August when it comes to music, Wizard is not the most wholesome bandleader. He puts the kids down, and repeatedly tells Arthur that he’s a “piece of work.” Once, he grabs August by the shirt and pushes him against a wall. Arthur tells August that Wizard stole the guitar he’s playing.

Flashback scenes involving August’s mother, Lyla, and her father show her dad being verbally harsh toward the teenage girl. [ Spoiler Warning ] Because of a medical emergency surrounding his delivery, Lyla thinks August died at birth. It turns out that her father forged her signature, sent the boy to the orphanage and lied to his daughter about the whole thing.

With equal parts Amadeus, Oliver Twist, Sleepless in Seattle and Mr. Holland’s Opus, August Rush has quite an ambitious plot. It aims to rescue a child from an orphanage, develop him into a talented composer and reunite his broken family, all in just under two hours.

Truth be told, it feels like the moviemakers were trying a little too hard to pull this off, and the story’s movement from one major development to the next sometimes feels contrived because of it. That, plus a few interjections of offensive language and an implied premarital sexual encounter create some disharmony for those seeking truly family-friendly entertainment.

On the other side of the scale, the original score by Mark Mancina is an engaging mosaic of found sound (which is just what it seems to be—sounds not originally intended as music that become musical when a composer uses them deliberately in a piece). Mancina’s work weaves together with the storyline to show how the music inside August finally gets out and becomes a finished composition. On top of that, this film has a good heart—one that values undying loyalty, perseverance, the development of natural talent in children and the preservation of families.

Finally, the connections and near-connections between music and spirituality are worth exploring. At one point, August says of his internal melody, “It’s like someone is calling to me. Writing it all down is like calling back to them … the ones who gave me the music.” He credits his parents (who both turn out to be quite musical) with giving him this gift, but the leap could easily be made to helping young music lovers/moviegoers understand that God is the giver of all good gifts and that using the gifts He gave us is our gift back to Him.

Lindy Keffer

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August Rush Reviews

August Rush benefits greatly from a delightful cast and John Mathieson's transcendent, fantasy-like camera work.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4.0 | Sep 2, 2020

Lay(s) on the saccharine schmaltz in broad, simplistic layers.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Jul 6, 2019

A story that could steal the hearts of millions but fails in the attempt... [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Mar 15, 2018

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Feb 14, 2012

Essentially an extended music video, and with about as much narrative weight, August Rush is empty, flat, and pointless.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/10 | Dec 28, 2010

A music box trying to pass itself off as an orchestra.

Full Review | May 5, 2010

A heartwarming fairy-tale that is undeniably sweet, even if it occasionally crosses over into sappiness.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 27, 2009

"The only thing astounding about this movie is how bad it is."

Full Review | Original Score: 3/10 | Sep 8, 2008

Someone in Hollywood must have it in for Thanksgiving. How else to explain the cruelly timed release of August Rush, a wretched confection that only the most determined will be able to count among their blessings?

Full Review | May 8, 2008

While many films require a suspension of disbelief, August Rush asks viewers to terminate their disbelief without severance and have security escort it from the building.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | May 1, 2008

Its almost desperate earnestness actually turns out to be its greatest appeal -- August Rush does believe in fairy tales, it does it does it does!

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Apr 17, 2008

August Rush kind of feels like a 2-hour coming attractions preview. Lots of fragmented stuff happens, without ever connecting the dots in between.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Mar 10, 2008

...warmly affecting at times and almost unbearably saccharine at others.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Mar 10, 2008

It doesn't matter if you love music or inspirational stories or Robin Williams (anyone?) -- this is enough to make your teeth ache.

Full Review | Mar 6, 2008

More fable than film, there is no earthly reason why August Rush should work. But it does.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Feb 28, 2008

It's far-fetched and a leap of faith of Olympic proportions is required to keep abreast of the plot, but August Rush does deliver some charming moments, largely due to charismatic performances from Keri Russell and Jonathan Rhys Meyers

Full Review | Feb 14, 2008

Uplifting and heart warming, this is a perfect date movie.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Jan 22, 2008

A lot like a conventional musical, but the story is not conventional, it is mystically romantic.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Jan 21, 2008

The excellent actors and good music make you think the movie will get better as it progresses, but it never does.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Jan 2, 2008

"August Rush" is a familiar, yet entertaining experience that works mostly because of the wonderful cast and the haunting mix of music.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 12, 2007

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August rush.

Magical realism meets a modern-day Oliver Twist in this often charming urban fantasy that teeters perilously on the brink of preciousness but never quite topples over.

By Kirk Honeycutt , The Associated Press November 7, 2007 8:00pm

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This review was written for the theatrical release of “August Rush.”  

Magical realism meets a modern-day Oliver Twist in “August Rush,” an often charming urban fantasy that teeters perilously on the brink of preciousness but never quite topples over. It’s a tightrope act from the first frame, but Kirsten Sheridan in her second outing as a director — 2001’s “Disco Pigs” was her first — infuses her film with rapturous music and imagery. The story is about musicians and how music connects people, so the movie’s score and songs, created by composers Mark Mancina and Hans Zimmer, give poetic whimsy to an implausible tale.

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Warner Bros. will rely on the cast to help sell this movie. Freddie Highmore again demonstrates he is one of the industry’s top child actors, while Keri Russell and Jonathan Rhys Meyers continue to climb to stardom in roles that demand the utmost sensitivity. The film should attract a loyal following, but critics will be mixed.

“August” adopts the structure of “Oliver Twist” whereby an orphan runs away to New York and falls in with a Fagin-like character. 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. Evan (Highmore), whom he renames August Rush, is a child prodigy whose skills reward him with a prime spot in Washington Square.

It is in Washington Square 11 years ago where Evan was conceived. In flashback, a young Irish guitarist-singer, Louis (Rhys Meyers), encounters a shy, young cellist, Lyla (Russell), on a rooftop overlooking the square. The two spend the night only to be torn apart by circumstances.

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. Shattered, she loses interest in playing and relocates to Chicago, where she teaches music. Louis, too, gives up music, opting for a business career in San Francisco.

A kind social worker (Terrence Howard) urges Evan into family placement, but the boy never gives up hope of finding his parents. He believes he can reach out to them through music, that they can “hear” each other. His musical gifts explode when he comes to New York. 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.

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. In no time, he has composed a symphony. It will be played in Central Park, where Lyla is a featured cellist and Louis is nearby, reunited with his old band.

Clearly, the film does not work on any realistic level. “August” is driven by its music. From gospel and rock to classical and symphonic, music carries its characters and story ever forward to their destiny. 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. And nearly stealing the film is young Jamia Simone Nash with her sassy line readings and astonishing voice.

AUGUST RUSH Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Pictures presents a Southpaw Entertainment production in association with CJ Entertainment Credits: Director: Kirsten Sheridan Screenwriters: Nick Castle, James V. Hart Story by: Nick Castle, Paul Castro Producer: Richard Barton Lewis Executive producers: Robert Greenhut, Ralph Kamp, Louise Goodsill, Miky Lee, Lionel Wigram Director of photography: John Mathieson Production designer: Michael Shaw Music: Mark Mancina Costume designer: Frank Fleming Editor: William Steinkamp Cast: August Rush: Freddie Highmore Lyla Novacek: Keri Russell Louis Connelly: Jonathan Rhys Meyers Richard Jeffries: Terrence Howard Maxwell “Wizard” Wallace: Robin Williams Thomas: William Sadler Arthur: Leon Thomas III Hope: Jamia Simone Nash Running time — 113 minutes MPAA rating: PG

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August Rush

August Rush is one of those rare movies that made me dislike it, then won be back over before the end credits roll. It’s not common to see a movie accomplish that roller-coaster ride that turns me away from the picture and then picks me back up, but somehow the story manages it and left me a giddy, sappy mess by the end.

The odd title of the movie comes from the lead character: a young orphan who sneaks away from the orphanage to find his real parents. The kid is convinced that he is still connected to his parents through a mysterious tune that comes to him through just about anything that makes sound, so he sneaks away from the orphanage and into the big city, where he is “adopted” by Wizard ( Robin Williams ), the leader of a collection of street performing children. Wizard sees the child’s gift for music, which he wants to use for his own personal gain. He renames the kid “August Rush,” and tries to manage the kid’s career. Meanwhile, fate is reuniting August’s biological parents, a concert cellist ( Keri Russell ) and a rock musician (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), who actually only got together for one night eleven years ago; the night when August was conceived.

As a film that theorizes about a unifying theme in music, August Rush has a bit of a surreal edge to it. The movie breaks occasionally from narrative storytelling to reveal the music that comes from August’s world in slightly surreal editing. It’s slightly gimmicky, especially when you consider that acts like Stomp have been using everyday items for percussion sounds for years now. Oddly, as August actually starts to learn about music, these vignettes become less common. One could almost infer that the more August learns about music, the less he hears it, although I don’t think that’s the point; I think it just coincides with a need for the central story to become the primary focus. I think it could have been handled a little better though, mostly by removing some of the sequences earlier in the film. August hears this tune everywhere. We get it in the first few minutes of the movie, so hammering it home in semi-surreal sequences can be a bit obtrusive.

Of course, you can’t have a movie about music without a decent score, and August Rush ’s Mark Mancini delivers one of the most intoxicating soundtracks I’ve heard in recent years. It’s a pretty tall order to ask a composer to come up with a sound for music that sounds like it connects to all humans – the music we’ve all heard somewhere in our dreams but never can truly recreate. Mancini lives up to the idea however, with one of the most intoxicating scores this year. It’s a soundtrack that felt so right, both its use in the picture and on a musical level, that I had to race out and pick up a copy. I can’t offer higher praise than that.

The big downside of the movie is that it is completely derivative. There is almost nothing in here that you’ve not seen before in almost identical stories. Child separated from parents, hoping something in the world will reunite them: An American Tail . Street urchins held together by a cruel gang-leader: Oliver Twist . The notion that some unseen “force” unifies the world: Star Wars . The talented Freddie Highmore ( Finding Neverland ) even seems to be channeling Haley Joel Osment from about a decade ago. Just about everything in August Rush has been done before, but somehow, it still works and the deeper the movie gets, the more it draws you in to the point that you can look past the derivative nature of the film and enjoy it.

There’s no way to avoid saying it: August Rush is a “feel-good movie” with a bit of a fairy tale element with the story of the forlorn orphan seeking out his parents and finding a world of instant success along the way. Fans of sappy feel-good flicks should love it. It’s not tremendously deep, but it’s still entertaining despite the feeling that all of this has appeared before somewhere else. Even if the story lacks originality, at least the music is enjoyable.

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August rush, common sense media reviewers.

Pleasant, emotional, fable-like family drama.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Viewers will learn about music including the creat

For the most part, everyone behaves out of the goo

Evan Taylor is a young musical prodigy who grew up

Two brothers argue and lunge at each other; a man

A couple kiss, in close-up, and spend the night to

The occasional "damn" and "pissed" and one "screw

Shots of signs for the concert venue (Irving Plaza

Some drinking in bars and social situations.

Parents need to know that August Rush is an emotional family drama, with sexual content at a minimum and lots of warmth and great musicianship. That said, there is a bit of violence (a man flashes a knife at children), some social drinking, and a few iffy words ("damn," "pissed," etc.). And since the first…

Educational Value

Viewers will learn about music including the creative process of creating songs and various musical instruments.

Positive Messages

For the most part, everyone behaves out of the goodness of their heart, though Lyla's father seems cold-hearted, and Wizard is a little creepy and cruel.

Positive Role Models

Evan Taylor is a young musical prodigy who grew up in an orphanage and goes by the stage name "August Rush." He is determined, resilient, and passionate about music and uses his talents in the hope of finding his birth parents. Lyla shows unwavering love for her son, Evan, as she too is motivated to find him. Louis, Evan's birth father, matures and shows responsibility when he tries to reconnect with Lyla and his family.

Violence & Scariness

Two brothers argue and lunge at each other; a man yells at children, flashes a knife, and commands them to keep working for him -- later, he chases down Evan; cops raid a dilapidated theater to find runaway kids; bullies at a boy's home taunt a much younger boy; a father and daughter scream at each other.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

A couple kiss, in close-up, and spend the night together (they're shown fully clothed the next morning, cuddling); another couple kisses on a stairwell.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

The occasional "damn" and "pissed" and one "screw you."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Shots of signs for the concert venue (Irving Plaza); mentions of Juilliard, the New York Symphony Orchestra, and the Sherry-Netherland.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that August Rush is an emotional family drama, with sexual content at a minimum and lots of warmth and great musicianship. That said, there is a bit of violence (a man flashes a knife at children), some social drinking, and a few iffy words ("damn," "pissed," etc.). And since the first half of the movie relies on lots of flashbacks -- which could be confusing for younger kids -- it's probably a better pick for tweens and teens. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Community Reviews

• Parents say (8)
• Kids say (26)

Based on 8 parent reviews

What Is The Message?

This movie is now #3 on my list of favorite artistic movies, what's the story.

Ah, young love. It's the heady cocktail that entwines two young musicians -- Irish singer-guitarist Louis ( Jonathan Rhys Meyers ) and reserved, brilliant cellist Lyla ( Keri Russell ) -- in this imperfect-but-winning film. After meeting cute in Greenwich Village, they spend the night together. But morning brings the harsh glare of sunlight -- and reality: Lyla is whisked away by her protective father (William Sadler), never to see Louis again. Nine months later, when a pregnant Lyla winds up in the hospital after an accident, she's told that the baby she and Louis conceived that night has died. Only he hasn't. Instead, Evan ( Freddie Highmore ) is sent to a home for wayward boys, where he pines for his parents, believing he can will them to find him through his music. (He's a prodigy, able to tap into the harmonies of nature -- grass rustling, wind howling -- and command new instruments the moment he picks them up.) So when they fail to materialize at the dreary institution's doorsteps, he sets out to look for them. And with the help of a social worker ( Terrence Howard ), and the propulsive force of his music, he just might.

Is It Any Good?

AUGUST RUSH proudly wears its heart on its sleeve. Despite the lows -- and there are lows -- you just know there will be a happy ending. Allegorical and not altogether literal, the movie is part musical and part fantasy, a combo that doesn't always quite mesh. But the stars -- particularly Highmore and Russell -- are charming, and so innocent that you can almost believe a story like this could happen in real life. However, Robin Williams strikes the wrong chord as Wizard, an aging busker, who, Fagin-like, rounds up a bunch of musically inclined street urchins, encourages them to play, then keeps much of their take at the end of the day. (Evan takes up with them, and it's Wizard who renames him August Rush.) With his hat and swagger, Williams seems to be channeling Bono by way of Saturday Night Live . The effect is humorous, but not for the right reasons; you keep expecting him to go off on one of his riffs to signal that he's joking.

August Rush does a great job of establishing the connection between Evan and his mother; in two separate scenes, they discuss how many days they've been apart, using nearly the same syntax. But there doesn't appear to be the same bond between Evan and his father (though seeing them play guitar together is somewhat moving). Director Kirsten Sheridan draws the link between Louis and Lyla much more clearly, making their coupling seem completely inevitable and, consequently, dreamy and meant-to-be. (Just like the movie's happy ending...)

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about what kind of movie this is -- is it a drama? A fantasy? Both? How can you tell? Do you expect a movie like this to be realistic? Families can also discuss how the movie portrays music. Does it really have the power to connect people? To heal their wounds? Why? Can you think of other movies that depict music's enormous, and sometimes magical, reach? And, last but not least, what can viewers learn from how Evan keeps believing in a kinder, gentler world, despite his background and everything that happens to him? What's the big lesson here?

Movie Details

• In theaters : November 21, 2007
• On DVD or streaming : March 10, 2008
• Cast : Freddie Highmore , Jonathan Rhys Meyers , Keri Russell
• Director : Kirsten Sheridan
• Inclusion Information : Female directors, Female actors
• Studio : Warner Bros.
• Genre : Drama
• Topics : Music and Sing-Along
• Run time : 113 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG
• MPAA explanation : some thematic elements, mild violence and language.
• Last updated : August 21, 2023

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August Rush

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August Rush Review

August Rush Review

23 Nov 2007

NaN minutes

August Rush

Kirsten Sheridan, the daughter of Irish filmmaker Jim (My Left Foot, In The Name Of The Father) and an Oscar nominee herself for co-scripting dad’s In America, tackles a worryingly twee premise. Luckily, she makes a rather enchanting job of it. The family audience-oriented story might be very, very Oliver Twist, but the execution is unblushingly that of a fairy tale, from the opening aerial shot of darling Freddie Highmore, conducting the music in his head in the centre of a swirling field of wheat, to a Manhattan twinkling like a magical kingdom.

Moving back and forth in time, we first meet Highmore’s bullied Evan in an orphanage, where his only comfort is the music he hears in everything around him (a conceit Sheridan handles charmingly). We are then treated to the brief but passionate love affair between Jonathan Rhys Meyers’ Irish rock guitarist and Keri Russell’s sheltered classical cellist. Quite how a couple manage to lose not only each other but the baby they conceived under a magical full moon is hard to account for in this day of search engines and your-whole-life-is-there-for-all-to-see databases, but the pair suffer both travails at the hissable contrivance of Russell’s mean, ambitious father.

Eleven years after the romance, daddy, mummy and foundling are spread across the country but share a mystic musical bond, so plucky Evan runs away to New York to make his music heard, believing it will lead his lost parents to him. Given how many people want to become famous, he does so with mind-blowing ease, securing a full scholarship to Juilliard and a concert showcase in Central Park before you can say, “Hang on a minute…”

That all doesn’t proceed happily for quite an anxious age is down to Robin Williams’ malevolently OTT musical street hustler Wizard, a Fagin-like figure (though impishly modelled, wardrobe-wise and in demeanour, on Bono) who takes in homeless waifs at his squat in an abandoned theatre, ruthlessly sets the kiddies to busking, and knows a meal-ticket star when he hears one. Everyone else is a bit terrific, including some sidekick musical tykes with real chops. Mark Mancina’s original score is a treat too, and atmospherically appropriate, although Oliver! it ain’t.

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August Rush (2007) Review

Modern fairy tale.

August Rush (2007)

Now, for anyone who’s never seen or read Oliver Twist there’s August Rush, where little Oliver is actually a music prodigy named Evan who one day runs away from his orphanage to find his parents in the big city and have all sorts of wacky adventures. He even has a Fagan, a delightfully creepy, manic depressive man with mutton chops and a soul patch who philosophizes about the nature of music and its place in the universe. You can’t see right now, but I’m making a “gag me” face.

Yes, August Rush is unabashedly sentimental. It’s a feel good, chicken soup of a movie that works its magic even if you’re half a Grinch. (Yes, even me.) But it can’t be denied that this is an obvious and gushy film where happily ever afters happen as easily as five car pile-ups on the 401 on a snowy day. Also, I don’t know all there is to know about music, but I’m somewhat unconvinced of its Harry Potter-like magical abilities to help us solve our Earthly struggles.

Just don’t tell Evan (Freddie Highmore) that, he hears music everywhere, even in the electrical wires, which tell him to walk away from the orphanage in the dead of night. He arrives in New York City and runs into Wizard, a former street musician that now runs a whole crew of child labour musicians. Obviously with Evan’s musical ability, Wizard sees a gold mine and rechristens the kid “August Rush”.

Through flashbacks we learn that Evan’s parents were a debutant cello player with Julliard named Lyla (Keri Russell) and a soulful Irish rocker named Louis (Jonathan Rhys Meyers). They were star-crossed lovers torn apart when Lyla’s overprotective father (William Sadler) forbids her from seeing Louis, but not before she gets pregnant. Several years later, during a deathbed confession, dear old dad reveals that he used the injuries Lyla suffered in a car accident to fake a miscarriage and spirit her son into foster care.

Now this is deep stuff assuming that you’ve never seen a Disney movie, or in fact any movie, ever. It’s full of many pleasant little contrivances, like how an 11-year-old boy can wander the streets of Manhattan for hours and nothing bad ever possibly happens to him. Then there’s the way everybody starts looking for each other at the exact same time; dad’s death coincides with Louis desire to find the woman he loved more than all others, which is the exact same time that Evan performs his little Hail Mary to the big city. And then the way that Louis finds Lyla again: a Google search? Jeez buddy, what was holding you back? Carpal Tunnel Syndrome? Arthritis? Bonus Eruptus?

To be fair, I did find the performers engaging. I thought that Russell was really good and low key as the frantic mother and she played really well against Terrance Howard as a sympathetic social worker. Freddie Highmore, although being at times a little creepy, also does a good job of portraying Evans longing and search for not just spiritual fulfilment in finding his parents, but also looking for artistic fulfilment along the way even though he didn’t know that he was supposed to be looking for it. Robin Williams is impressive for his restraint, but there was something about his character that really disturbed by, although apparently benign, his character felt out of place and something more attune with perhaps the New York of Law & Order: SVU.

Some of the praise I’ve heard about August Rush calls it a “modern fairy tale.” I certainly can’t say that I disagree, but maybe that’s part of the problem: is it or isn’t it some kind of modern fairy tale? Because if it is, it’s a little too real for a simple fable and if it is not that it’s far to whimsical to be believed straight up. Maybe I wasn’t in the right head space to watch this movie, I don’t know. What I do know is that the ending, without giving too much away, left a little bit wanting and that’s not a good thing for any movie to leave the most satisfying bits out of frame by the time the credits roll.

Final Thoughts

Adam A. Donaldson, a dynamic writer, crafts a weekly political column for GuelphToday. A former contributor to CGMagazine, he's the force behind Guelph Politico. Outside politics, he writes for Nerd Bastards. Balancing passion with pragmatism, he navigates a diverse range of writing assignments.

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August Rush

W atching this yucky emotional drama is like being sprayed with treacle from a high-pressure hose. Freddie Highmore plays a cutesy 11-year-old boy who has, due to a tragic twist of unjust fate, lost contact with his musician parents (Keri Russell and Jonathan Rhys Meyers) - and escapes from the children's home, trusting to his own sense of cosmic musical harmonies to find them again. This sweet-faced urchin becomes part of a Fame Academy-style gang of kiddie-buskers run by a charismatic Fagin figure, played horrifically by Robin Williams . A discordant experience.

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August Rush

Dove review.

This story left just about everyone who screened it with a lump in our throats. It is an emotional ride which leads to a fantastic conclusion. If the viewer followed the journey from beginning to end, he/she wouldn’t be disappointed with how it is wrapped up.

The premise of the story is the birth of a child prodigy, whose obvious musical talents begin to shine to all those around him, including those who would help him and one who would exploit him for gain. Separated from his parents at birth, due to some circumstantial situations which are explained in the film, the young boy at age twelve desperately wants to find his mother and father. He knows in his heart they are still alive.

Freddie Highmore gives an outstanding performance, as do Keri Russell and Jonathan Rhys Meyers. Robin Williams is also quite good as Wizard, the Fagin of his day, as there are a couple of similarities between this story and “Oliver Twist”.

Life in an orphanage is depicted in this story and young August is believed to be an orphan. Some of the children haze young August a bit because of his hope in finding his birth parents. He soon runs away and eventually meets Wizard, and he winds up playing music in a church and is “discovered” as a musical genius. However, this film contains a single instance of biblical profanity, therefore we are unable to award it our Dove “Family-Approved” Seal.

Dove Rating Details

A man punches his brother and draws blood; a boy hits a man with a guitar, smashing it; a kid is kicked by another kid; a woman is hit by a car off screen; a child is hit by a car on screen but not hurt; boys haze another boy about being an orphan.

Kissing; an unmarried couple spend the night together but it is not shown as they are fully clothed in the morning and there are repercussions with an unexpected pregnancy.

GD-1; D-7; OG/OMG-5; H-1; A-1; P-1; Cr*p-1; Butt-2

Casual drinking.

A man lies to his daughter and falsifies a document; a boy runs away from orphanage; boys run away from police; a man employs children for their talents in a similar fashion to the character of Fagin in "Oliver Twist."

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Movie review: 'August Rush'

"August Rush" is "Oliver Twist" meets "Fame," about an orphan boy who knows he can find his parents if he can play a song that tells them he's here. First, of course, he's got to meet the Artful Dodger and learn the guitar, then go to Juilliard and land a big concert in Central Park.

Yup. Absurd. But magical things happen to Evan (Freddie Highmore). Bullies at the orphanage can't stop him "from hearing the music." He has faith. He knows his birth parents hear the same music. It'll bring them together.

Only they don't know he exists. Mom (Keri Russell, radiant) was once a student cellist of great promise. Louis (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) was an Irish singer-songwriter with the world seemingly at his feet. They met, had a magical night together. But events conspired to keep them apart. And then her father told her the baby died.

Eleven years later and something is tugging both adults in the direction of a child who has run away from the orphanage, made his way to New York and fallen in with a musically predatory Fagin figure (Robin Williams, his hair dyed mean and red).

The kid's a prodigy. Evan, now stage-named August Rush, picks up instruments and musical notation on instinct.

Director Kirsten Sheridan, making her Hollywood debut, manages some transcendent musical moments with the street buskers August falls in with, a gospel choir, and parallel concerts that musically connect the cellist to the rocker to the prodigy.

Sheridan can't keep her toes out of the cheese, though. Some moments are insipid enough to make your eyes roll. Still, her actors save her.

• "August Rush"
• Rated: PG (some thematic elements, mild violence, language)
• Starring: Freddie Highmore, Keri Russell, Robin Williams
• Directed by: Kirsten Sheridan
• Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes
• Playing at: AMCG, DEST, FISH, HUDV, PALIS, PALTZ, PGAL, SHOW

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August Rush Reviews

• 38   Metascore
• 1 hr 54 mins
• Drama, Music
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Wonderfully rewarding urban fairy tale about a 12-year-old prodigy (the marvelous Freddie Highmore) who heads to New York City to find and reunite with the musician parents who abandoned him as a baby. Keri Russell and Jonathan Rhys Meyers costar as the young lovebirds who made sweet music (and a child) before their romance was dramatically and untimely cut short. Directed by Kirsten Sheridan. Robin Williams is a gas as a modern-day Fagin trying to "help" the lad in his quest.

Romantic melodrama meets Oliver Twist in this odd, quasi-mystical movie that’s too silly for adults to take seriously and frankly too weird for kids. Spring, 1995: On a rooftop garden overlooking Greenwich Village’s Washington Square, two strangers fall in love to the sounds of a street musician blowing Van Morrison’s “Moondance” on a harmonica in the park below. Louis Connelly (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) is an Irish-born singer who’s just played a gig at Manhattan’s Irving Plaza with his brother, Marshall (Alex O'Loughlin) and their band. Lyla Novacek (Keri Russell) is a promising young concert cellist who just wowed an audience with a concerto played under the baton of her domineering father, renowned conductor Thomas Novacek (William Sadler). One thing leads to another and morning finds Louis and Lyla still on the rooftop, asleep in each other’s arms. Before racing back to the hotel where her father is impatiently waiting, Lyla agrees to meet Louis later that morning. Maestro Novacek, however, won’t hear of it, and bundles Lyla into a limousine before she can even tell Louis goodbye. Lyla soon realizes she’s pregnant &#151; a result of that romantic rooftop tryst &#151; and decides to keep the baby, but is later struck down by a car after an argument with her father. When she awakens in the hospital, Thomas Novacek tells her she lost the baby. Twelve years later, Evan Taylor (Freddie Highmore), an unusual, gifted young boy who’s been remanded to the care of the Walden County School for Boys in upstate New York, believes that his long-lost parents are somewhere out there, and that if he only listens closely enough to the music made by the wind, the grass and the high-tension wires, he’ll find them. Bullied by the older boys and determined to be reunited with his family, Evan runs away from home and heads to New York City, where he hopes to enlist friendly child-services worker Richard Jeffries (Terrence Howard) in his search. Instead, Evan falls in with Maxwell Wallace (Robin Williams, asinine in red muttonchops and black leather), a Fagin-like character who goes by the name "Wizard" and runs his army of ragamuffin child buskers out of the abandoned Fillmore East. No sooner does Evan pick up the battered Gibson guitar belonging to pint-size musician Arthur X (Leon G. Thomas III) than strange, alluring sounds begin pouring out. Knowing natural talent when he sees it, the Wizard promises to make him a star. He changes Evan’s name to “August Rush” and tries to book him at seedy bars &#151; a career track that will benefit the Wizard far more than a 12-year-old boy, and one that will take Evan ever further from finding his family. The film unfolds on three fronts: Evan’s efforts to find his parents, Lyla’s realization that the child she thought had died is still alive, and Louis’ journey back from a career in finance to the music he abandoned after Lyla left him heartbroken. Not surprisingly, all three storylines converge in New York via a series of absurd coincidences that the movie asks us to accept as some sort of cosmic orchestral score audible only to those who allow themselves to hear the overtones of the universe, or some such nonsense. By the end, 12-year-old “August Rush” is conducting the New York Philharmonic in Central Park as they play one of his own original compositions, and if that isn’t one of the dumbest thing you’ve ever seen in a movie, Lord help you.

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August Rush

• A musically gifted orphan, Evan, runs away from his orphanage and searches New York City for his birth parents. On his journey, he's taken under the wing of the Wizard, a homeless man who lives in an abandoned theater.
• 12 years ago, on a moonlit rooftop above Washington Square, sheltered young cellist Lyla Novacek (Keri Russell) and charismatic Irish singer/songwriter Louis Connelly (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) were drawn together by a street musician's rendition of ''Moondance'' and fell in love. After the most romantic night of her life, Lyla promised to meet Louis again, but despite her protests, her father rushed her to her next concert--leaving Louis to believe that she didn't care. Disheartened, he found it impossible to continue playing and eventually abandoned his music while Lyla, her own hopes for love lost, was led to believe months later that she had also lost their unborn child in a car accident. Their orphaned son (Freddie Highmore) uses his musical talent as a clue to find his birth parents.
• The story of a charismatic young Irish guitarist and a sheltered young cellist who have a chance encounter one magical night above New York's Washington Square, but are soon torn apart, leaving in their wake an infant, August Rush, orphaned by circumstance. Now performing on the streets of New York and cared for by a mysterious stranger, August uses his remarkable musical talent to seek the parents from whom he was separated at birth. — DeathtoGlitter
• In 1995, Lyla Novacek (Keri Russell) is a cellist studying at the Juilliard School and living under the strict rule of her father. Louis Connelly (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) is the lead singer of an Irish rock band (with Marshall Connelly (Alex O'Loughlin), Louis' older brother). They meet (Lyla is a shy type and gets away from a party by hiding away on the roof, where she meets Louis, who was just hanging out there) and have a one-night stand, but are unable to maintain contact, as Lyla's father stops her from pursuing the relationship. Lyla discovers that she is pregnant. Following an argument with her overbearing father over her unborn baby, she is struck by a car, forcing her to give birth prematurely. While Lyla is unconscious, her father Thomas Novacek (William Sadler) secretly puts the baby boy up for adoption, telling Lyla that her son died. Eleven years later, the baby is living in a boys' orphanage under the name Evan Taylor (Freddie Highmore), where he is assigned to a social worker named Richard Jeffries (Terrence Howard). Evan is a musical genius and displays savant-like abilities and perfect pitch, which often causes him to be bullied. Convinced that his parents will find him, Evan runs away to New York City, "following the music" in the hope it will lead him to his family. Evan tries to contact Jeffries (who had given Evan his number), but is not able to contact him. He later loses Jeffries contact number when he drops it in a drain by accident. He finds a boy named Arthur (Leon Thomas III) busking in Washington Square Park and follows Arthur to his home in a condemned theatre, where Evan is introduced to "Wizard" Wallace (Robin Williams), an arrogant and aggressive vagrant and musician who teaches homeless, orphaned, and runaway children to be street performers. The children earn money by performing on the streets and come back and give a percentage of the earnings to Wizard. Evan tries playing Wizard's prize guitar, Roxanne (a Gibson J150ec), Evan is so good that Wizard gives him his old spot in Washington Square Park, along with the guitar, which was also Arthur's. He gives Evan the stage name "August Rush" and tries to market him to clubs. Seeing the posters that Jeffries has placed for the runaway Evan, Wizard destroys all the ones he finds, hoping to keep Evan for his own gain. Louis now lives in San Francisco as a talent agent, while Lyla is a music teacher in Chicago. Louis reconnects with his brothers and decides to try to find Lyla (dumping his girlfriend Jennifer (Becki Newton)). Lyla is called to her father's deathbed, where he confesses that her son is alive, causing Lyla to abandon her dying father and immediately start looking for her son. On arriving at Lyla's apartment in Chicago (after looking her up on the internet), Louis talks to one of her neighbors, who mistakenly tells Louis she is on her honeymoon. Despairing, he ends up in New York, where he gets his band back together. After Jeffries meets Wizard and Arthur on the street and becomes suspicious, the police raid the derelict theatre in which Wizard and his "children" are living. Evan manages to evade the police and remembers Wizard's advice to never reveal his real name to anyone. Evan (now "August") takes refuge in a church, where he befriends a little girl named Hope (Jamia Simone Nash), who introduces him to the piano and written music. Hope brings August and his abilities to the attention of the parish pastor Reverend James (Mykelti Williamson), who takes August to Juilliard, where he once again impresses the faculty. A rhapsody takes shape from August's notes and homework. In New York, Lyla goes to Jeffries' office (after Jeffries notices her arguing with the case officers that she cant wait 6 months to re-establish contact with her son), and Jeffries identifies Evan/August as her son (using the birthday and hospital as identifiers). While looking for him, she takes up the cello again and accepts an offer to perform with the Philharmonic at a series of concerts in Central Park. August is selected to perform the rhapsody he has been composing at the same concert. However, Wizard interrupts the rehearsal and claiming to be his father, manages to pull August out of the school. On the day of the concert, August is back in his spot in Washington Square, while Wizard makes plans to smuggle him around the country to play. He meets Louis, and unaware of their blood relationship, they have an impromptu guitar duet. August tells him of his dilemma (of wanting to play at the concert), and Louis encourages him to go. That evening, with help from Arthur, August escapes from Wizard through the subway and heads for his concert. Louis, after his own performance with his reunited band, sees Lyla's name on one of the banners and also heads for the park. Jeffries finds a misplaced flyer for "August Rush" with a picture, and also heads for the concert. August arrives in time to conduct his rhapsody, which attracts both Lyla and Louis to the audience, where they are reunited. August finishes his rhapsody and as he turns to discover his parents, he smiles knowing that he has been right all along.

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August Rush (United States, 2007)

August Rush isn't just a bad movie - it's an aggressively bad movie. There are times when it tips the scales of absurdity and becomes almost comical. The film intends to be a modern day fable about fate and music and Dickensian characters but the sloppiness of the script and haphazard nature of the direction turns everything rancid. It's not difficult to understand what director Kirsten (daughter of Jim) Sheridan is attempting and equally easy to see that she doesn't achieve her goal. August Rush is constructed on a foundation of interconnected failures, the biggest of which comes at the very end. Instead of giving us the moment that a mawkish melodrama like this demands, we are presented with a diluted and minimally satisfying shadow of the moment . It's one of many things that August Rush does wrong.

The movie is about how fate contrives to bring three people together - "contrives" being a key word. 12 years ago, Juliard-trained cellist Lyla Novacek (Keri Russell) and rock singer Louis Connelly (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) shared a magical night together, but circumstances parted them the next day even though they were clearly meant for one another. Nine months later, Lyla gave birth to a bouncing baby boy but her father (William Sadler) gave the child up for adoption after telling his daughter the infant had not survived the birth. Alone and lonely, these two sad souls live their lives, not knowing there is someone out there connected to them. Meanwhile, that boy, who will eventually go by the name of August Rush (Freddie Highmore), ends up in an orphanage, where he is bullied. Eventually, he runs away and ends up on the streets of New York, where his amazing musical talents blossom under the sometimes cruel tutelage of Wizard (Robin Williams).

August Rush would like us to believe that some mystical Force (as the characters describe it, it sounds a lot like the one in Star Wars ) binds everyone together. It isn't coincidence that Lyla and Louis meet and their single coupling results in August. It's Fate. Music binds these individuals together. Lyla and Louis both play instruments and August sees and hears music in everyday actions. Unfortunately, director Sheridan proves unable to make us believe in this. It comes across as silly, cloying, and cheesy. The characters seem not in the grip of Fate but moved by the hand of filmmakers who wouldn't know the meaning of "subtlety" if they looked it up in a dictionary. There's one sequence in August Rush when the contrivances explode out of the gate with such frequency that they're stumbling over one another. I was soon laughing so hard that I was almost in tears. When a movie implodes this spectacularly, it's impossible not to be impressed, if not necessarily for the right reasons.

August Rush has one good idea, but it's not effectively exploited. There are several scenes in which Sheridan attempts to get us into the mind of a musical prodigy and show how he sees the world. We look through August's eyes and hear through his ears, where every sound, no matter how mundane, becomes a note in the symphony of life in the city. We don't get enough of this, perhaps because Sheridan is afraid of overusing the technique. Had the movie focused more on August's peculiar kind of brilliant madness and less on the dreary soap opera of his possible reunion with his mother and father, August Rush might have offered something of value.

Freddy Highmore is a relatively high profile child actor, with a resume that includes significant roles in Finding Neverland and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory . Judging by his performance in August Rush , one might think he had never been in front of a camera before. He's a blank slate, complete with glazed-over eyes and a slack-jawed smile. Highmore cries frequently and wears that stupid grin a lot, but he never emotes. It's impossible to accept August as a human being because there's nothing about him that seems real. Not only is he a musical genius, but he appears to be imbued with ESP as well. How else could one explain the final scene?

Keri Russell and Jonathan Rhys Meyers fare better than Highmore, but this isn't going to be a highlight on the filmography of either. As Wizard, Robin Williams hits all the wrong notes. There's potential here for a genuinely creepy, frightening character but, in order to get a PG rating, the gloves are on, making Williams more cartoonish than menacing. Terrence Howard is criminally underused. Why hire a man with so much talent if he's going to be given what amounts to a pointless role with a couple of dozen lines of dialogue?

Now it's time to tap-dance around the ending without revealing anything. Big melodramas are supposed to build to a hugely satisfying final scene; August Rush ends with a proverbial whimper. The conclusion doesn't work on any level - logical, intellectual, or emotional. It's a miscalculation and a letdown, but that's in keeping with the film as a whole. The movie plucks at the heartstrings with the virtuosity of an untrained two year old. It's sloppy, contrived, and annoying. It elicits giggles and guffaws instead of tears and, when it's all over, many audience members will be annoyed that they wasted two hours. When the closing credits begin, the only rush will be for the exit doors.

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