A "nice" movie if plausibility means nothing to you

Rating: 5/10 (22 June 2008)

I think if people are simply out to see a movie that makes them say "Aww..." and have some harmless escapism from the drudgery of life, this will probably do the trick. However, it should be said that if you expect even a modicum of realism, you should seriously look elsewhere. I laughed out loud a number of times at the sheer absurdity of it all, and I don't think that was what the director had in mind with this sappy feel-good bit of make-believe.
There are the situational improbabilities (Hey! I've got a ticket for that flight to San Francisco, but surely the airline won't mind if I "follow my heart" and jump on the New York flight instead!); there's the intrusion of Robin Williams (himself a veteran of quite a few cloying films) who apparently raided Bono's wardrobe closet; there's the sheer improbability (impossibility?) of a child with no musical experience doing some complex hammering and picking on a guitar the first time he ever touches one (and let's not even touch on the "writing a thousand pages of sheet music the first day he touches a piano" bit, or his writing of a symphony)... in the end, the whole film is summed up by the scene where the boy has a chance encounter / jam session with his then-unidentified-father on the streets of New York. When they went to leave each other, I was half-expecting the guy to tell the boy "I'm in a band. We're called Pop and the Fatherdaddies, why don't you come and check us out... son?"
If you're undemanding you may appreciate this, and for those sick of the violence and misanthropy in films out there, this may be a safe haven. But personally, I found the latest Indiana Jones film more believable than this.