The Most Ridiculous Film I've Ever Seen

Rating: 2/10 (15 November 2007)

This is the sappiest, silliest, most predictable film I've seen in years. The plot is full of holes and, despite some decent acting, has one of the worst scripts in a film I've ever seen.
The repetition of the line "I can hear it in the music" or "I feel the music" is just plain annoying. The idea of a child prodigy that brilliant is over-reaching, and the character is outlandish, even with Freddie Highmore's solid acting.
The sap level in this film is through the roof. Keri Russell and Jonathan Rhys Meyers barely speak before they are making out, then have casual sex on a roof- but are suddenly "so in love" that he gives up his career for her...then, at the end, they "just know" that they have spent 11 years pining for one another and Meyers suddenly knows this is the child they had 11 years ago...how? I'm assuming he feels it through the music!
Furthermore, Robin Williams' character is beyond annoying and horrible. Though this is meant to be on purpose, and he's meant to be a sort of Fagan character, he is, in some ways, something of the glue that holds the entire film together, and him arriving at Juilliard is almost a laughable scene. Robin Williams is no longer the wonderful actor we loved in films like Hook, Good Will Hunting and Mrs. Doubtfire.
Freddie Highmore, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Keri Russell are all great actors who do what they can to save this abysmal script, but to no avail. Had there film focuses more on the child's time in the orphanage, or on the fact that the kid was most likely autistic (or at least came off that way), the film could have been far more interesting, authentic, and less predictable. Terrence Howard, Leon Thomas III and Jamia Simone Nash are the best things about this film, as Howard and Thomas are terrific actors, and Thomas and Nash are beautiful singers.
The music is surprisingly lovely, and Keri Russell is a great cellist. However, not even that can save this embarrassing cheese-fest. Save your money and your time.