Over the critics' heads

Rating: 10/10 (24 November 2007)

Some movie reviewers just don't get it. One calls August Rush, "a piece of shameless hokum..."; another calls it "the sort of movie that requires you not only to suspend disbelief, but to check your sanity at the ticket counter." That same reviewer said the movie Babel was a "towering dramatic achievement"; I thought it was lumbering and tedious with scenes arguably pedophilic. As one Yahoo user said about it, "Please let's not confuse art with egothe sensationalism of seeing the naked girl or the masturbating boy was only necessary to compensateTHERE IS NO STORY HERE." How often do we see reviewers totally out of touch with the opinions of the movie-going public? Back to August Rush. This movie went right over many critics' heads. I believe these are the elements they least understood: August Rush is a story of hope that teaches hope, determination, perseverance, and to never give up on your dream. It gracefully defines the benefits of listening. It takes us to another realm where we can witness there is more to us than our mortal bodies, brains, and intellects. Aha! It teaches things of the spirit, things unseen, things beyond our human understanding, and it does so through a child who is full of joy when there seems to be no reason for him to have any! But, he is a prodigy with a talent kindling in him and he can do things for which there is no logical reason.
My own son, Greg, was reading and doing math beyond a second grade level well before he began kindergarten. Neither his father nor I taught him these things; he just "knew" them. His pediatrician suggested tests when he seemed to her to be intelligent beyond his years. The evaluators gave their academic conclusions: Some kids just seem to get these things "out of the air" and he was one of them. Honest to God, that was the expression they used.
Numerous other marvelous instances of a "miraculous" vein have occurred in my own family's life's experiences. I submit to you, why do the Stephen Kings et al who present almost exclusively the darkside have the corner on the supernatural market? It's okay by today's standards to have the bejeebers scared out of us by the macabre, but to be encouraged by the extraordinary powers of our Creator? Why, that's just "shameless hokum." Do you know that each and every one of us has glorious potential within us if we'd just listen to the still small voice within? And that ain't "hokum," folks! My heart truly goes out to those people who are of such a cynical, worldly nature that they cannot set aside their cerebral traits long enough to fathom the positive spiritual potentials of God.
Sincerely, Marylynn Stults