There aren’t too many child actors that I like, but Freddie Highmore is definitely one of them. I first noticed Freddie in the 2004 film Finding Neverland where he played the boy who inspired J.M. Barrie to write Peter Pan. I thought Highmore was brilliant in that movie, so I began following his career more closely and now try to see as many of his films as possible.
That was my motivation behind renting August Rush a few days ago, and is the reason that The Golden Compass and The Spiderwick Chronicles are both on my “To Watch” list. As for August Rush, Highmore came through with a great performance once again. I have a feeling he’s going to be a huge star someday!
Plot summary (with possible spoilers): The film opens with intercut scenes of two very different musicians. Louis Connelly (played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers) is the lead singer of a rock band, while Lyla Novacek (Keri Russell) is a Juilliard-trained concert cellist with a bright future. The two run into each other on a rooftop in New York City, feel a mutual connection, and then sleep together. Thought they plan to meet again the next day, Lyla’s domineering father (William Sadler) forbids it.
A baby resulted from that one-night stand, but thanks to a car accident, he was given up for adoption without Lyla’s knowledge or consent. We meet the boy, called Evan Taylor (Highmore), who has been “in the system” in NYC for all 11 years of his life. Though he has no idea who his parents are, he has no doubt that they will come to find him sometime soon. Because of this belief, he doesn’t want to be placed with a foster family — just in case his parents show up at the orphanage.
However, when a social worker named Richard Jeffries (played by Terrence Howard) reviews Evan’s case, he tries to convince the boy that having a family would be a good thing. Evan gets scared, so he runs away from the orphanage and ends up becoming friends with Arthur (Leon G. Thomas III), a street musician who plays guitar in one of the city’s parks for pocket change.
Arthur takes Evan back to his “home”, which is actually an abandoned opera house that he shares with a bunch of other street kids. Their leader is a man named Wizard (Robin Williams) who sort of looks after the boys, but mostly makes sure he gets more than his fair share of their earnings.
Evan starts playing a guitar, and it becomes apparent that he is a music prodigy. Wizard immediately sees big dollar signs in his future, so he sets out trying to find gigs for Evan — whom he promptly renames August Rush.
The rest of the film then shows how August develops his musical talent, gets discovered by Juilliard, and eventually comes to conduct his own composition in Central Park, drawing both Lyla and Louis to hm, just as he knew he would.
My Reaction: Well, you can probably tell from my summary that August Rush certainly isn’t the type of movie that will appeal to a broad audience. It is very sappy and sentimental, with completely ludicrous coincidences that allow the plot to play out just so. That being said, there’s a time and a place for films like this, so I didn’t mind the overload of sugary sweetness that much.
I’m not saying that this was a great movie, because it certainly wasn’t. But it’s a nice family film that parents can enjoy with their children instead of watching the latest Pixar animation for the 100th time.
Do I even need to go into how implausible nearly ever element of the plot was? Um, like Juilliard would admit an underage kid without doing a background check? And please don’t tell me they couldn’t find any information on “August Rush” (fake name), so they just gave up and let him in. Oh, and how convenient was it that both Louis and Lyla remained unmarried and pining for each other for 11 years — and then upon meeting in a crowd of thousands in Central Park, they had absolutely nothing to say, no looks of shock, but just held each other’s hand? Puhleeze!!
But despite the utterly contrived and implausible plot, I still liked August Rush. I’m telling you, there’s just something about Freddie Highmore that draws me in to every film he does. He’s so earnest and sincere as August (without being obnoxious or cloying) that I couldn’t help but like him and pull for him to find his parents.
Obviously, the overall rating for August Rush has to suffer because of the dumb coincidences that keep cropping up in the plot. I would ordinarily have given this film 4.5 stars based on what I saw, but I’m bumping it up to 5.5 because of Highmore’s performance. This film is worth watching; however, you definitely have to be in the mood for something highly sentimental in order to enjoy it!