Fabulous film featuring fabulous Freddie.

Rating: 10/10 (1 March 2009)

Director Kirsten Sheriden and screenplay writers Paul Castro, Nick Castle and James.V.Hart have succeeded with flying colours in delivering a poignant and captivating real life tale that possesses a beautiful feeling of magic without  most astonishingly  the aid of a novel.
The awe-inspiring Freddie Highmore (from stunning successes such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Arthur and the Invisibles and this year's The Golden Compass) brings his charming essence to the film as he devotedly plays the title character  an audiophile with whom we can all relate. Eleven-year-old August can realise beauty in every sound he hears and believes that: "Music is all around us. All you have to do is listen." With this unique philosophy and strong passion he could well become the greatest musician in the world. But sadly our delightful young hero has spent all his life in a strict, ramshackle orphanage that maliciously tries to prevent a single spark of hope or desire from flourishing.
Then one fateful day he is gently talked into escaping the harsh and horridly restraining prison and follows the path of sound. Along the way he is helped by the faithful church community and steered of course by a cold greedy villain who calls himself 'Wizard' (the wonderful Robin Williams) into a gang of unruly, street type buskers but even so he moves on in the hope of at last finding his long lost mother (Kerri Russell) and father (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) who aren't doing too well either.
With its entrancing all-star cast and a firm command over its audience's heart and mind it's no surprise that this majestic masterpiece is an academy award nominee. Co-stars Terrence Howard and William Sadler.