Sunday, November 25, 2007
A+E, Movies, Reviews
Lyrical tale
“August Rush” sings sweetly
Freddie Highmore in “August Rush”
CREDIT: Abbot Genser
“AUGUST RUSH”
Freddie Highmore, Robin Williams
Directed by Kirsten Sheridan
Rated PG
Wide release
If you believe in the power of music,
you can accept the melodrama that goes with it in “August Rush.” If you
haven’t at least a spark of romantic idealism, you will hate this
fanciful movie, but anyone who was thrilled when humans communicated
with aliens through music in “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” will
feel a similar rush when music accomplishes the arguably more difficult
task of bringing three people together. Evan Taylor (Freddie Highmore), 11,
hears music everywhere, but can’t make music until he escapes an
orphanage, goes to Manhattan and falls into an “Oliver Twist” situation
ruled by Wizard (Robin Williams, whose performance is the movie’s one
sour note). Wizard spots Evan’s potential and changes his name to
August Rush to evade the authorities.
Meanwhile Evan’s father, rocker Louis
Connelly (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) is looking for the boy’s mother,
classical cellist Lyla Novacek (Keri Russell). She’s searching for
Evan, because she just found out her father lied about him dying at
birth.
There’s no question what will happen,
only how. You’ve got to be really gullible to believe the rest, but
really heartless to wish it would turn out any other way.
The soundtrack does a remarkable job of
blending rock and classical to convey the feeling that music is music,
as Evan picks up influences all over, from a gospel choir to street
sounds.
Director Kirsten Sheridan, daughter of
Jim Sheridan (“My Left Foot,” “In America”), turns out a slick,
professional product, adding enough fairy dust to make magic happen but
not so much that you’ll choke on it. THREE STARS—Steve Warren