Movie rush...

Rating: 7/10 (2 February 2008)

I can't get enough of saying that there are formulaic movies that just work. Today I was watching a film with some friends about a girl who does ice skating and plays ice hockey at the same time. She has to choose between both, but the movie is arranged so that she can do both...How great! Of course; extraordinary events take place so this can happen, but as they say: "The end justifies the mediums".
Kirsten Sheridan's "August Rush" is, surprisingly, not about sport. There's no team or single player who wants to win a championship; there's just a boy who wants to find his parents and believes music can help him, guide him. "All you have to do is listen", the little boy played joyfully by Freddie Highmore whispers. He's so charming that a Child Protecting Services worker (Terrence Howard) gives his number to him. Soon, the boy finds himself in New York: "How did you get here?", a truck driver who leaves him on the street asks him. "I followed the music".
There's another story being told apart from the boy's, and it's the one of his parents (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers and a lovable Keri Rusell). It tells how they met in New York and it's all really nice and perfect at night and they spend together the most beautiful night of their lives, with more music and contemplation than words. This is during the whole film. The contemplation is not part of the filming style and it's not there to serve the story; it's that the script is too short and the filmmakers waste time with musical numbers and visual passages.
From time to time, like during some of the magical numbers, "August Rush" makes us believe that music can connect people in the way the movie wants it to. It would be easier to believe if the boy's parents weren't so related to music (the father is a rock musician and the mother is a cellist) and if the film's circumstances weren't so predictable. But then, if everything was different, we wouldn't be charmed by the movie and it wouldn't be the same.
In these types of things, it has to be all or nothing, so it seems fair to say that Sheridan made all the right decisions. For example, there are like two moments where the film could skip a predictable moment (some formulaic pieces do); but it doesn't. "August Rush" gladly admits its 'clichés', so we also have an evil character played by Robin Williams as a man with good intentions but who ultimately cares about himself and no one else.
On the other hand, you find Terrence Howard's comprehensive face, or that one of a priest in a church where the boy spends one night. When he wakes up he learns two things in the piano from a little girl and when the girl comes back from school she tells the priest: "Remember when you said that Mozart was a prodigy? Well, I have one and he's living under my bed". That scene brought a smile to my face.
Because this is the best these films can do; they can make us escape from reality for a while and hope for a better world. I'm not making any statements or trying to say the world is a bad place, but the world is nothing like "August Rush" and it will never be...That's for sure. I want to add that I haven't explained most of the plot and I've skipped many important details you'll find in any review and even a simple plot description of the film, but it's on purpose: I honestly think you can enjoy this one. You should give it a try.