I am insulted indeed.

Rating: 2/10 (4 September 2008)

To be sure, the idea for this picture is quite lovely. But the silly script and ham-handed direction of "August Rush" simply made me angry. All American films are certainly not bad, but this groaner seems to include everything that's bad about American high-budget low-risk formula film-making.
And heaven forbid that the viewer might be called upon to use his or her imagination a bit. The script for "August Rush" lays it all out for you and then force-feeds it to you in fits and starts.
What a waste of truly wonderful actors, musicians, and high production values (this picture certainly cost a dollar or two). From the use of "Moondance" near the beginning (and then "sneaking" a bit of it into a symphony near the end - I am reminded here of "Leaving on a Jet Plane in the mightily-terrible "Armageddon"), to some truly awful dialog, to me this film is a badly-paced mess. I was ramping up the playback speed here and there to get from one scene to another, and to keep myself from falling asleep.
Yeah I wanted to see what happened at the end, and (surprise!), the predictable indeed occurs.
If you want to see my idea of cinematic-musical magic, see "Once".