Make sure the cinema has a good sound system

Rating: Null/10 (8 January 2008)

Fine, this movie is sappy, predictable too, but it's good none the less. There are contrivances and coincidences but then it is at heart a fairy tale. So accept it as one, dear critics, and don't rant.
If you're going to see it, make sure the cinema has a good sound system because an alternative title could have been "The glory of music". You get: cello concerto, pulse-rousing rock, a cappella gospel spiritual, strumming guitar, lofty organ, full orchestra symphonic sound and more.
The plot is simple. Two musicians, he a rock vocal-and-guitarist and she a classic cellist, fell in love at first sight (very fairy tale, yes) and got pregnant (one of them, anyway) at their first night of romance. Taken away by her typical upper-class father and later giving premature birth, the girl was led to believe that it was a stillbirth. The story is about how the boy, after 11 years in an orphanage, runs away and eventually finds the parents through their magical link  music.
There is no point going through the rest of the story, which has been torn to shreds by many critics who, unfortunately, are barking up the wrong tree. The plot is but a convenient vehicle to expound the main theme: the glory of music. One thing however that should be mentioned is a Fagin character (Dicken's "Oliver Twist") played by Robin Williams, as I have more to say about him. The movie is as predictable as one can make, but that is not a problem.
Freddie Highmore (Charlie in the recent remake of Willy Wonker's Chocolate Factory) appears to be on his way to becoming the next Haley Joel Osment. Some critics complain that there is not enough "expression" from him, whatever that means. But he is playing a very exceptional human being, maybe the only musical prodigy with such talents since Mozart. A large part of his world is immersed in sounds, both natural and unnatural, in a way no other human being can fully comprehend. Highmore's interpretation of the character is just fine.
Jonathan Rhys Meyers' rock musician father reminds me of Joaquin Phoenix in "Walk the line", and I can't help but think that maybe Meyers will make a good Johnny Cash too had he been given the role. In this movie, there is one scene, the first encounter of father and son (unknown to each other) that might have been a re-run of the legendary banjo-guitar duet in "Deliverance", with good effects. Keri Russell, who was the oldest of the four sisters in "The upside of anger", does a good job with the sympathy winning mother. Terrence Howard who did so well playing against Jodi Foster in "The brave one" is, unfortunately, completely underutilized here.
I do have one complaint, and this has to do with Robin Williams' character. It is as if the movie makers have gone into split personality that they project into the character. It is almost a disgrace at the end to turn him back into a greedy Fagin just to feed the cheap, common run-and-chase scene. The "Wizard" (William's character), Fagin notwithstanding, is after all the boy's first music teacher. His detestation for the classical mode does not take anything away from his passion for music. It would elevate the movie to another level if at the eleventh hour, he changes his mind and let the boy go freely to follow his dreams, classical music or not. That would ring true with the central theme of "the glory of music". Wonder if Williams had ever complained about this.