August Rush (2007)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Jameson W

  
  Touching. Great music.

• Brad W

  
  A good hearted film with some great music, great performances, but a very terrible ending that almost ruined it for me.

• Alexander D

  
  A great, inspiring non-musical movie about music. I have no clue why it gets such bad reviews, because I expect that this is the kind of movie to be remembered for decades to come.

• Zach B

  
  Now, okay. I understand that this is a film that loves music (and I can see that), but, one problem I have with some films is the crime they commit of taking a plot that has been used over and over again and just rehashes it without adding anything new. Sadly, for August Rush, this is… More
  Now, okay. I understand that this is a film that loves music (and I can see that), but, one problem I have with some films is the crime they commit of taking a plot that has been used over and over again and just rehashes it without adding anything new. Sadly, for August Rush, this is the truth. The acting in this film is, actually wonderful. Freddie Highmore is wonderful as ever, but even his acting can not really save this film. The script is basically a modern telling of Oliver Twist, just added a love of music. Now, if the script only worked on the love of music and cut the rest of it out, then this film would have been better. But, it had to have a sappy love story thrown in. Now, the main reason, if any, to see this film would have to be the film's score. I mean, it is just wonderful to hear all the music in the film and it would have worked well if the film only dealt with Evan (Freddie Highmore) being a music prodigy. Now, the direction of this film is rather slow. I mean, it could have been much faster paced and it does drag for a while. Overall, I only recommend this film if you are into cliche films or just really good film scores.

• ♥Robyn

  
  August Rush is the story of a musically-talented boy who was abandoned at birth by his mother. The film follows his search to find his birth parents.oh i totally loved this movie and who wouldnt love Freddy Highmore!!!!!!!!!!

• Spencer S

  
  Touching, musically full of zest, imaginative, and family friendly, August Rush has stellar acting, a great soundtrack, and the love of all out there crafting their masterpiece.

• Richard C

  
  B

• Jeff "

  
  Overrated piece of crap. Bad acting, bad script and Sappy story make for August Rush a definite miss. Just a poor story.

• Megan S

  
  Just a feel good movie all over, not for everyone. I thought it was magical and beautiful.

• KJ P

  
  August Rush does have many flaws, just like about ever movie... however I can't find myself disliking this movie one bit, because of how heartwarming it is!

• Wahida K

  
  An incredible journey moving at the speed of sound

• Flutie A

  
  Didn't quite live up to my high expectations...Freddie Highmore did an awesome job and I really enjoyed the opening sequence, but overall, it felt like one giant music montage...I felt like the score never stopped playing in the background, and there's a particular… More
  Didn't quite live up to my high expectations...Freddie Highmore did an awesome job and I really enjoyed the opening sequence, but overall, it felt like one giant music montage...I felt like the score never stopped playing in the background, and there's a particular development in Robin Williams' role that I wasn't expecting nor did I particularly enjoy. Once again, I enjoyed the trailer more than the movie itself.

• Thomas B

  
  if you're a music fan, you will love this film. if you're not, you'll like it just as much. robin williams is exceptional as usual, the only real downfall is the fact that the lead actor is not played all that well by freddie highmore. however, he has a promising future… More
  if you're a music fan, you will love this film. if you're not, you'll like it just as much. robin williams is exceptional as usual, the only real downfall is the fact that the lead actor is not played all that well by freddie highmore. however, he has a promising future ahead, and if he gets backup casts as good as he has in this film then he'll be right as rain.

• familiar s

  
  Plot-wise, there's hardly anything new here. It's the same old "lost and found" kind of story you'd probably have seen loads of times till now. The only difference is that this one's executed musically. But, despite this fact, the movie isn't boring… More
  Plot-wise, there's hardly anything new here. It's the same old "lost and found" kind of story you'd probably have seen loads of times till now. The only difference is that this one's executed musically. But, despite this fact, the movie isn't boring or a complete let-down and is pretty much watchable. Not a movie you should rush for, but give it a chance if you get a chance to watch it some day.

• Nicki M

  
  This movie could have been served on a cob there is that much corn in it. Little kid runs around town looking for his lost parents and "feeling" the music. It had me feeling for a sick bucket most of the way through.

• Red L

  
  Ok, this movie has its faults. Like a 10 year old kid (prodigy or not) is going to compose that music? And Robin Williams can be that annoying? And his parents can hear a few seconds of the symphony and know it is their kid? But the story is uplifting, and I really enjoyed the… More
  Ok, this movie has its faults. Like a 10 year old kid (prodigy or not) is going to compose that music? And Robin Williams can be that annoying? And his parents can hear a few seconds of the symphony and know it is their kid? But the story is uplifting, and I really enjoyed the music, and I had tears in my eyes at the end. Watch the darn movie!

• Leigh R

  
  Beautiful music and film.

• Dean M

  
  That story is full of strong emotionally drama between the musics and a very long lost relationship. Really wonderful heart-warming flick stars Freddie Highmore is amazing as a young orphan who heads to New York in search of his real parents, who are musicians, and very mystery of… More
  That story is full of strong emotionally drama between the musics and a very long lost relationship. Really wonderful heart-warming flick stars Freddie Highmore is amazing as a young orphan who heads to New York in search of his real parents, who are musicians, and very mystery of musical in his mind like his parents. And his co-stars Robin Williams as a crazy old sod who usesthe local homeless boys to make money - they basically busk on the streets for him and he lives off their takings. A very different role for Williams, but, not surprisingly, he pulls it off.

• Cassie H

  
  Absolutely WONDERFUL!!!!!!!!

• Nate Z

  
  [center][img]http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/2760/20071121hoaugustrush500ln5.jpg[/img][/center] [color=DarkRed][font=Arial]Am I too cynical for my own good? I'd like to think that I appreciate authentic works that tug at my heartstrings, and I'm a believer in the power… More
  [center][img]http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/2760/20071121hoaugustrush500ln5.jpg[/img][/center] [color=DarkRed][font=Arial]Am I too cynical for my own good? I'd like to think that I appreciate authentic works that tug at my heartstrings, and I'm a believer in the power that music can have, which are part of the reasons I named [i]Once[/i] the best film of 2007. In comparison, [i]August Rush [/i]tries to go all message and winds up skirting over why I should even care what happens to its characters. In 1994 or so Lyla (Keri Russell) is a concert cellist in New York City. Louis (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) is the lead singer in a rock band touring the area. They meet atop a rooftop, look deeply into each other's eyes, and then have sex. Parents, do not condone this behavior with your daughters and sons. But they're separated through lame circumstances and nearly miss each other several times. This romantic encounter has spawned a son growing in Lyla's womb. She gets into a car accident late in the pregnancy and was told by her manager/father tells her the baby has passed away. He is a liar because the baby was born and he signed it up for adoption. Flash forward 11 years. The child has gown up into the likes of Evan (Freddie Highmore) who lives in a boarding school for orphan boys. He knows his parents are out there in the world somewhere and he believe he can find them through the connection music. He gets lost in New York City and follows a troop of child musicians to the Wizard (Robin Williams). He looks after a gathering of orphan musicians that play on street corners. It's like Oliver Twist meets American Idol with an extra dose of sugar. Sure enough Evan stars drawing a crowd and the Wizard wants to make sure he doesn't lose his biggest earner. This film is a ludicrous and manipulatively maudlin mess. [i]August Rush[/i] plays all the big notes; the film's script is entirely comprised of big moments that waddle and crash into one another, and as such it ignores any details. Like the fact that Evan has the ability to connect to his long-lost parents simply by strumming an instrument, but he's never heard of musical notes or touched an instrument until he was 11. If the kid hears music everywhere, which reminded me a lot of Bjork in the superior [i]Dancer in the Dark[/i], wouldn't it stand to reason he would try to, I don't know, play music? Now I'm not saying he'd have access to every musical instrument at the boy's boarding house but surely he could have drummed something? I find it unbelievable that a musical prodigy would wait until he was 11 before he picked up an instrument. Also, he learns what sounds are labeled as what letter notes by a cherubic little tyke with some powerful pipes of her own. He goes immediately from learning what an F sharp is to scribbling complex musical notation on blank sheets of music stanzas. How does he know all the symbols and placements and everything that the little girl did not teach him in their brief instructional moment? I'll go back even further. How come Lyla and Louis give up trying to find each other so easily? Why does Louis wait 11 years before he searches the Internet for Lyla, who, being a world-class cellist, would not exactly be low profile? And why does a pregnant Lyla not do more to, you know, get in contact with her child's father when he's even in the exact same city? It's details like these that [i]August Rush[/i] hopes to will the audience to ignore, but to me it was proof time and again that the film's indifference to plot, character, and maintaining any level of credibility even on a heightened "urban fairy tale" level. If you replaced the stars then this movie would prove to the world that it belongs on the [i]Lifetime[/i] TV network. It's a melodramatic free-for-all that turns the topic of music into a quasi-religious experience. Now I know for many that music actually can maintain a religious level of power and sweep, but I challenge people watching [i]August Rush[/i] to replace the word "music" in the dialogue with any other word to fully realize how cheesy the dialogue is. Let's try replacing "music with "the force," and now read this choice line of dialogue: "You know what [the force] is? God's little reminder that there's something else besides us in this universe; harmonic connection between all living beings, every where, even the stars." And: "[The force] is all around you, all you have to do is listen." This is the kind of film where characters can look up into the void with wistful, wide-eyed looks and somehow connect over the ether. That's how the characters stay together and eventually reunite in a predictable and sappy manner. The music itself is rather unremarkable. It's well composed but I wouldn't be able to recall it again even if I had a gun to my head. When the movie trumps the message of the transcendent power of music it doesn't help when the music it presents is less than special. The acting befits the same cheesy atmosphere of the movie. Highmore is pretty vacant and looks like he's shrugging from scene to scene, that is, until he bangs his hands against a guitar neck and everyone somehow calls this genius. I think part of Highmore's problem is that regular folks just think that honest-to-goodness geniuses don't really have to work hard for results. This is, of course, false. Mozart was a prodigy, yes, but he didn't just yawn and write down invisible notes that were dancing in front of his eyes waiting all day to be transcribed. He worked hard. Highmore just looks off into the distance and he seems to be in a trance. It's annoying. Russell gets to pine for something just outside her reach (turns out it's a son) but she doesn't flash an iota of the grace and magic she showcased in Waitress. Meyers gets to "sell out" and then reunite his mid 90s alternative rock band. Here's the thing -- the sound EXACTLY THE SAME after 12 years and yet on their first gig back together they have a huge crowd? The movie is trying to tell me that the tastes of pop culture wouldn't change in a dozen years. Williams manages to give hints about a troubled past as a musical prodigy eaten up by a system hungry for the next big thing. He also bellows and growls and comes across like a creepy Fagan for a team of street urchins. [i] August Rush[/i] is sticky, sappy, manipulative and maudlin feel-good rubbish. This is the kind of movie that most people will probably never get. Perhaps people who live, breathe, sleep, and eat music will feel more inspired by its message of human connection and spiritual fulfillment via the power of music. That's swell but it still doesn't excuse the fact that [i]August Rush[/i] is a overly serious, laughable, syrupy work. If you're going to dismiss its faults as the film being a "fairy tale" well then the film still doesn't establish any hard rules for its universe. The characters are still one-note and behave in annoying and moronic ways because the plot demands it of them. And classifying the film as a fairy tale still doesn't make the music any better. I can't believe this stuff had a shot of beating the spectacular songs from [i]Once[/i] for 2007's Best Song Oscar. In fact, [i]August Rush[/i] wishes it was [i]Once[/i] because that low-budget charmer was able to communicate the power of music honestly and profoundly with the added benefit of beautiful tunes. I would like to recommend that all people thinking about renting [i]August Rush[/i] instead go out and find [i]Once[/i][/font][/color][color=DarkRed][font=Arial]. Nate[/font]'s G[/color]r[color=DarkRed]ade: C-[/color]

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