A Beautiful Movie, Overcomes its Underlying Flaws

Rating: 9/10 (15 March 2008)

First of all I want to make it clear that I absolutely loved this movie. The story is very beautiful and moving. But the key to enjoying this movie is to realize that it is a fairy tale and not a typical drama or thriller. Anyone familiar with musical theater or opera are used to suspending their normal skepticism to unlikely or even impossible plot situations and instead enjoying the heightened emotional reality that is portrayed. This movie is not about clever plot twists or dialogue. It is about the power of music and of love. Those ideas are more important than even the characters in this movie. For those of you who can not stomach the idea of that, then this movie is not for you. But for those of you who enjoyed "Across the Universe," "Big Fish," "Moulin Rouge," hey, even "Il Postino" then you will probably have the artistic maturity to enjoy this film.
Being a professional musician and music teacher gave me in an interesting perspective on this film. On the one hand, I can fully appreciate what the character Evan is implying with his line "The music is all around you, all you have to do is listen." Music is simply sound, repeating vibrations in the air that are caused by all things that move. Our music was at some point in the beginning derived from the sounds of nature, and I could tell that the composer tried to make the soundtrack sound initially more "natural" by using a lot of open octaves and fifths, the kind of harmony that is by far most prevalent in nature. I was also deeply touched by the idea that the music "of one's soul" could attract another person. The ancient Greeks believed in "the music of the planets" and the music of one's soul, in addition to our "audible" music. The philosophers Plato, Boethius, Aristotle and others came up with the "doctrine of ethos" which lies at the heart of this movie: that the harmonies of nature and the mind are inter-related with and affect the harmonies we create and enjoy in music. The fact that music alone can elicit emotions in us proves that at least some of this ancient philosophy is true.
On the other hand, listening in closer to the soundtrack leaves me a little disappointed. Jonathan Rhys Meyers is just barely good enough of a singer to get by as a professional musician--even for a rock singer--and his versions of "Moondance" and "Something Inside" start to sound like open mic at a karaoke night. And I was sad to listen later to "August's Rhapsody" and find it is full of cinematic music cliché's and uninspired harmonic movement. But I did not notice any of these things when I watched the movie (which is amazing for me) because of the effectiveness of the gestalt of the movie. With a little effort to curb a desire to nit-pick, I enjoyed this movie so much that I would say it is one of the best I have ever seen.