I was severely disappointed in this movie…this was my perfect movie…a unrequited love, a hidden child, and music, all with Robin Williams, Keri Russell, Jonathan Rhys Meyer, and Terrance Howard…all actors I enjoy. This was supposed to lift my spirits, not make me look at the clock and wonder where the two hours I was never going to get back had gone.
The general synopsis: a cellist and a rock star fall in love in one night, and then they wake up to reality, are torn apart by parental concerns and bandmate distances, only to find out that the girl is preggers with said bandmate’s son. Skip to eleven years later we meet the boy musical prodigy in an orphanage, claiming that if he just writes this symphony, his parents will reunite…blah blah blah, he ends up in NY, starts performing for a Fagan-esque character played unconvincingly by Robin Williams (he honestly seemed drunk throughout the movie…and I don’t think he was channeling Stanislavski). He escapes Fagan-land, ends up playing an organ in a church, then ends up at Julliard, all within the span of about 30 minutes. Blah blah. He writes a symphony, his parents hear it (but don’t know that they are at the same place), la-dih-dah, you know the rest.
It almost seems like the idea was just not thoroughly developed. The music was excellent. The acting, sub par, although Terrance Howard seemed to be the only one whose character was not one-dimensional…along with Jonathan Rhys Meyer, who’s sympathetic eyes were windows to his soul, and anyone who has seen him in The Tudors knows, this boy can act…plus he has an accent, but I digress…
The script seemed rushed. The actors seemed bored. The boy played his character in one-dimension. Throw in that he is a boy and cute and can cry on-cue, and you got yourself August Rush.
There were good musical performances throughout, which seemed to take place of most dialogue that was sorely needed. By the time you reached the climax of the film, you wanted it to continue because you knew what was going to happen. I would have liked to have seen the movie go beyond the end scene. We know he’s conducting a symphony. We know his parents will find him and each other…but what happens after all this? Does he have to go into therapy to figure it all out? Does she become a cellist in the guy’s band? Or does the bandmate finally figure out that the only thing the girl was good for was a hit song? These are the conflicts I like to see, the messy part of life…not the happily ever after after some weak conflicts.
The movie should’ve worked; it had all the keywords of a great film: brilliant actors, a good idea, and great music. But August Rush became anything but harmonious…it became just another great idea that didn’t deliver.
