I'm in the minority

Rating: 4/10 (4 December 2007)

Before I start this review, I want to mention that I was one of the few who hated "Forrest Gump." So perhaps I should have known better than to go see another movie about a wide-eyed innocent. But I did. In it, Freddie Highmore plays the titular character. While Gump was guided by a magical feather and the love of a woman, August is guided by music. Music, he explains in several voiceovers is everywhere! We just have to open our ears.
The product of a one night stand between two talented musicians (Keri Russell as a classically-trained cellist) and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers as am alternative-rock star, August lives in an orphanage and maintains, in the tradition of all plucky movie orphans, that his parents are still alive, even though everyone tries to tell him otherwise. Eventually, he runs away to New York City, where he has a series of adventures that the scriptwriters don't even try to pretend aren't cribbed from "Oliver Twist." He meets an African-American urchin who takes him to his mentor's hideout and tells him to consider himself part of the family. The mentor is called Wizard, played by Robin Williams, who exploits a crew of homeless young musicians. Wizard is bad, but fortunately for August, the city is also populated by saintly minorities who teach him to write music and help him get accepted to Juilliard. No, the movie doesn't explain how. This is fantasy, you see. You must suspend disbelief and open your heart. Especially, at the end, when August is finally successful in reuniting his folks. No, it doesn't involve anything as mundane as a Google search. That wouldn't be magical.
This movie was like being strapped in a chair and having a box of sugar forcibly poured down my throat. I did think Highmore did a good job, particularly since the movie required him to cry a lot on cue, which not many adult actors can do convincingly. This is the kind of movie that is tailor-made for the holiday season, when people are looking for a little uplift. If you're a Grinch like me, though, do stay far, far away.