"If you could be anything in the whole world, what would you want to be?" -- "Found."

Rating: 9/10 (23 November 2007)

August Rush (Freddie Highmore) is an eleven-year-old orphan boy who believes he hears his parents through music in nature, and perhaps, if they hear his music, he'll be found.
"Sometimes the world tries to knock it out of you, but I believe in music the way that some people believe in fairy tales," says the budding musical prodigy. Opening with a well-produced scene of the boy joyfully directing a concert of wind in elbow-high grass, the movie immediately contrasts his daydreams with the perpetual attempts at crushing his spirit. He runs away from the boys' home, following the music. But his is not a journey to find. His is a search to be found. "Maybe the notes I hear are the same ones they heard the night they met. Maybe that's how they found each other. Maybe that's how they'll find me."
Though not a musical, music is a central theme. It is beautiful. Some classical, some rock, some earthy, organic. "The music is all around us. All you have to do is listen." Along his journey, August touches a guitar for the first time and it comes alive--he comes alive--as he is finally able to express the music that has always been within him. He wanders into a church and listens as a rehearsing Gospel group sings, "Sometimes it takes a different kind of love to raise a child. So don't give up."
And interwoven is the story behind his parents, his abandonment, and a yearning, a drawing back to the music they once loved, contrasting and merging her concert cello performances with his Irish bar band. "I believe that once upon a time, long ago, they heard the music and followed it." But can they hear his?
Sometimes I look for a smash-em-up movie, an opportunity to escape through a high-adrenaline unreality. This time I wanted one that made me feel. August Rush did that. Intensely. Having been a foster dad to six boys, knowing the intense yearning "to be"--to be family, to be wanted, to be loved, to be "found"--, I sat in the back row, ashamed of my tears yet drawn in for more. Tears for the boy's plight, the purity of a simple dream, the joy and passion expressed through his slap technique of guitar playing.
Perhaps the boy's struggle will not rip at your heart as it did mine, but it's a great movie with beautiful music. I've already seen this movie twice--something I rarely do. And I bought the sound track--something I've never done. I'm certain I'll see it again. Of course, I'll buy the DVD.
August Rush is a great family movie, probably for kids eleven and over. There are scenes of street kids living in an abandoned theater. Some adult intimidation of the kids. There is one rooftop scene with an unmarried couple waking up together, but they get up fully dressed.