August Rush

Reviewed by:
Pete Hammond

August Rush concocts a strange brew of music, comedy, drama, fantasy, and romance that just don't mesh into any kind of coherent story. It can be admired for trying something a little different from the usual family film, but in the end, it just doesn't work. At all. Spinning off the premise of a one-night stand between a street musician (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) and a celebrated classical cellist (Keri Russell), a child (Freddie Highmore) is born and almost immediately orphaned when the girl's father signs him away, telling her he died during the tumultuous birth. The boy turns up 11 years later in New York City, where, in a twist straight out of Oliver (Charles Dickens could sue if he were alive), he is taken under the wing of a Fagin-like manipulator named Wizard (Robin Williams) who collects runaway kids, turns them into street performers, and pockets most of the proceeds from their tips. The kid is given the showbiz name August Rush, and turns out to have an extraordinary musical gift, which he uses to try to escape the hold of Wizard. With the help of a church pastor he becomes a promising artist at The Juilliard School and is soon scheduled to make his debut in a Central Park concert, where, you guessed it, his mother is also playing. With a deadly pace and generally fake performances (Highmore is a particularly cloying kid actor), there isn't much that's memorable in this well-meaning flop.