August Rush is one of those rare movies that made me dislike it, then won me 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. Being a musician myself I am always on a look-out for movies based on a theme of music and this one is a fairly decent fair.
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(Robbin 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 Rhyes Myers), who actually only got together for one night eleven years ago; the night when August was conceived.
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. 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. Plus, I couldn’t agree with the child playing the guitar the way he did in the movie without any formal training.
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.