August Rush

A contemporary fairy tale similar to many other stories (perhaps too many) that makes the movie totally predictable and almost since the beginning you will know the end. But this is not a movie to watch for the story, which is very sappy; is a movie to watch for the music and the fantastic cinematography that the two together makes you forget that you already know the story.

Most compare the movie to Oliver Twist and is similar, but I find it a mixture of the recent Russian movie I saw The Italian and an American romance movie called Serendipity. See there are too many stories told that are similar one way or the other.

Anyway tells about an orphan boy that escapes the Upper New York state orphanage to go looking for his birth parents. The parents met one night –11 years ago- that they spend together and never saw each other again, until the three characters merge in NYC. The mother thinks his son died at birth, as that’s what her father told her. The twist in the story is that everything happens around and because of music as the mother was a cello player and the father a rock band lead singer.

Starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers (and he sings quite good) as the father, Keri Russell as the mother, and Freddie Highmore as the kid, you have a trio of beautiful actors that totally contribute to make this fairy tale a good visual poetry voyage dressed with outstanding music from a wide range of styles, all seamlessly integrated. Unfortunately there are some moments that all the visual poetry is lost thanks to an awful character and performance by Robin Williams (that’s when the story is most similar to Oliver Twist).

This crowd pleaser is bound to entertain you beyond normal movies; of course you have to be able to relax and enjoy everything visual and auditive happening in the screen and pay less attention to the story.

I found it to be a beautiful movie to see and yes eventually I forgot about the story, relaxed and highly enjoyed the visuals, the songs and the music.

Enjoy!