August Rush

This is a film that I wanted to love, that had all the elements there for me to love, but in the end disappointed me. Why didn’t I love it? I’m not sure director Kirsten Sheridan knew exactly what film she wanted to make since there are so many story lines and characters that get introduced but never fully developed. Is this film about the unbreakable bond between child and parents, or finding one’s true love, or following one’s passion, or fixing the foster care system or something else? With so many characters and story lines no one gets to be developed deep enough to connect with the audience. It’s a shame because there are some very strong performances here. Young Freddie Highmore as the musical prodigy is very strong, Robin Williams is his usual self as a crazy-homeless “Fagin” and Terrence Howard provides a great supporting performance as a concerned social worker. What I didn’t like were the performances by Keri Russell and Jonathan Rhys Meyers who play the boy’s parents. They seem to be whining and grimacing throughout the film and tend to be too reactionary as characters.

The plot also seems to be too random. Too many times in the film events would happen to push the story forward that had me and my wife asking, why and how? Whether this was an issue with the screenplay or the directing I’m not sure, but it makes watching the film difficult. It’s a shame, since the idea of this film is wonderful and the cast had the potential to make it great, but the execution falls short of the mark.

It’s not a bad rental on a slow night, mainly because it’s a feel-good movie that is very family friendly.

Rating:

Film’s website: http://augustrushmovie.warnerbros.com