Sentimental but effective

Rating: 7/10 (22 December 2012)

Cellist Lyla (Keri Russell) and rock musician Louis (Jonathan Rhys Meyer) have a one night stand and the child which results is handed over for adoption by Lyla's father. 12 years later, after he dies, Lyla goes looking for her son just as he - now going under the name of August Rush, having fallen in with Fagin-like small-time music hustler Wizard (Robin Williams, playing against type) - is starting to follow his musical muse.
This movie is not at all realistic - I liked Freddie Highmore's performance as August, looking for his parents as much as they are looking for him - but he didn't convince me of his precocious musical talent for an instant. Nevertheless, the film is good-hearted, heartwarming, downright sentimental, and quite nicely done. The musical sequences don't convince even slightly, but I enjoyed it nevertheless.