Sometimes a movie just tries too hard. August Rush tries so hard to be sweet, likable, and uplifting that I almost hated having a sour reaction to the film. The only thing that held me back from not giving into its forced charms? This isn't a very good movie. This is the kind of movie that is so manipulative and overly calculated in its good feelings that I almost felt insulted watching it. I'm sure August Rush will have its fans, but they will most likely be the kind of people who either don't like things like conflict in their stories, or they don't care what they watch, just as long as it has a happy ending.

The hero of our story is a boy named Evan Taylor (Freddie Highmore), a doe-eyed innocent who thinks of nothing but music and tracking down the parents who gave birth to him a little over 10 years ago, but supposedly gave him up to the shelter for boys that he currently lives in. He believes with all his heart that him being here is not the result of his parents not wanting him, and if only he could find a way to contact them, they would come for him and they could be a family again. We learn in flashbacks what happened. A pampered young classical musician from a well-to-do family named Lyla Novacek (Kerri Russel) had a one night stand with a rising rock singer from a poor neighborhood named Louis (Jonathan Rhys Meyers). The two never saw each other again, due to the fact that Lyla's stern father (William Sadler) didn't want his daughter to have anything to do with someone like Louis. Lyla became pregnant with Evan after her night with Louis, but was hit by a car late in her pregnancy, which forced the doctors to remove the child from her body prematurely. The father used this as an opportunity to give the baby up for adoption, then tell Lyla that it was dead when she eventually came to in the hospital.

Evan is determined to track down his parents, so he runs away from the shelter, and finds himself in New York City, where he quickly discovers that he is a musical prodigy who can learn to play just about any instrument in mere seconds. The first to discover this is a street musician named "The Wizard" (Robin Williams), who has a group of homeless children that play music for cash on the street. The Wizard is the man who gives Evan the stage name of August Rush, and tries to launch the kid's career. When that sours, Evan is discovered by a local minister who is so impressed with the kid's ability to compose symphonies in a matter of minutes that he sends the kid straight to the most prestigious music school in New York. The kid becomes a celebrity there, and his symphony is chosen to be played at the next concert in Central Park. As for his parents, Louis (who is now a businessman in San Francisco) has never forgotten Lyla, and is desperately trying to track her down. And Lyla finds out about her child after her father tells her the truth on his deathbed, so she teams up with a New York social worker (Terrence Howard) to track down her son.

August Rush is being billed by its makers as a modern day fairy tale, but this movie stretches the realms of believability even by those standards. This is a story made entirely out of contrived coincidences and pat circumstances. The movie moves at a brisk pace, but perhaps it's a bit too brisk. The story seems rushed and unsatisfying, due to the fact that it simply moves from one major event to the next, like it's in a hurry to get done. Despite this, the movie still manages to run for almost two hours. This rushed tone gives the movie an unintentionally comical effect. I love the way that Lyla seemingly leaves her father on his deathbed, without even waiting for him to pass away, to go look for her son. The father is never mentioned again, and it looked like she didn't even go to his funeral. Young Evan's journey to child prodigy genius is equally breezed over, as he apparently learns to compose symphonies in the course of one afternoon, and is accepted to Julliard music school seemingly by the next day. There is no sense of time passing in this movie, with everything seemingly happening instantaneously. Not only does this make the film hard to believe, but it also prevents us from getting truly close to the characters. It's rushed and episodic nature allows characters to just pop in and out of the story as the film pleases, and we never find ourselves getting closer to anyone.

The movie is also completely lacking in conflict or suspense. Even when Evan is on the street, he never seems to be in any danger, because he immediately meets a friendly group of street kids who take him under their wing. The Robin Williams character is the closest thing this movie has to a villain, as he tries to exploit Evan's musical talents for his own gain, and is very possessive of him, not letting him look for his parents. But even he doesn't come across as being so bad most of the time. The screenplay by Nick Castle (The Boy Who Could Fly) and James V. Hart (Sahara) only wants to tell an uplifting story, and has sanded off any rough edges it might have had. But, even uplifting stories need some form of crisis or moments when hope seems lost. It makes us want to see the hero pull through. We never get that in August Rush. Evan's journey from boy in a homeless shelter to conducting his first symphony in Central Park goes mainly without incident. The same goes for his parents' individual journeys, who both seem to fall upon the right clues so that they can coincidently be in the right place at the right time. We never feel like the characters earn their success, more so it just falls in their lap. When the expected happy ending arrives, it is just as forced and coincidental as everything else in the movie, leaving me not with warm feelings, but left me with a sour taste in my mouth.

The cast that has been assembled is certainly not without talent, but they are at the mercy of a screenplay that doesn't care about their characters. Freddie Highmore (Finding Neverland, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) once again finds himself playing a "golden boy" type. He's been good in past films, but here, he mainly just stares at everything in doe-eyed wonder and smiles that shy little innocent grin of his. He never comes across as an interesting character, due to the fact he is never developed as anything but a total innocent. As his parents, Kerri Russel and Jonathan Rhys Meyers are both passable, but once again, are never developed beyond their individual single-minded goals. The one actor who comes across the best is Robin Williams, who at least gets to show different shades to his character. His character is a seemingly kind person with a dark undercurrent. The fact that he is the only person in this movie with anything resembling darkness within them makes him stand out. Terrence Howard is wasted in a throwaway role as a social worker who is trying to track Evan down. He pops up from time to time, but none of his scenes allow him to truly grab our attention.
August Rush is a movie that is brought down by its own good intentions. It's so forced and mechanical in its good feelings that we find ourselves at a distance from the characters and everything that is up there on the screen. I quickly found myself not caring about the movie, and it never really tried to recapture my interest. The movie just rushes right through its story, never really stopping to wonder why we're supposed to care about these people. At the end of the movie, a young boy gets a chance to share his gift with the world, loved ones are reunited, and the end credits rolled. That last part filled me with more joy than anything that had happened in the movie itself.

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