MOVIE REVIEW: August Rush
Oh God, it's Sunday evening and instead of writing my highly anticipated review of High School Musical 3 (have no fear, it'll come by the end of the night -- that's what Zac Efron said... OOOH SNAP), I find myself channel surfing to no avail. I stumbled upon August Rush on one of those family HBO channels and even though I kept attempting to avert my attention to something else on TV, I just couldn't stop watching this train wreck knowing very well that only a few months ago I put myself through this torture already. So, while I gain enough momentum to conjure a review of HSM3, here is an oldie but goodie movie review of August Rush...
August Rush is about an orphan prodigy named Evan (Freddie Highmore) who is the spawn of two musically inclined love birds. Lyla (Kerri Russel) is a renowned concert cellist and Louis (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) is an Irish-import lead singer of a rock band. Both meet for the very first time at a party overlooking Washington Square Park when Lyla goes outside on the balcony to catch a breath of fresh air and Louis is already outside listening to the echoed sound of a harmonica playing in the park. The two engage in small-talk, which could not have possibly exceeded more than five minutes, and before we know it, they whisk each other off their feet. Whether it was Louis' puffy pillow lips or seducing Irish accent, or Lyla's innocent demeanor, the two engage in sexual relations on said balcony, which happens to be attached to an apartment that is currently hosting a big classy party. Wow, I never knew a balcony was such an aphrodisiac!
And of course, as anyone who has had a one-night love-fest with a very seductive Irishman knows, no matter how many contraceptives you use, the super Irish semen will still find a way to impregnate you. So, pregnant and in love, Lyla opts to keep the baby, but an accident sends her to the hospital where she prematurely has the baby while unconscious. Her father tells her the baby has died, but instead gives the poor kid up for adoption before his daughter is awoken. Oh, and somewhere in between the love affair and the accident, the sexy Irishman leaves New York City to tour with his band. I think.
Fast forward to eleven years later, and the offspring, Evan, is in an orphanage seeking a way to leave in order to find his parents that he swears he can "hear." After meeting a social worker (Terrence Howard) who visits from New York, Evan flees to New York City without a penny to his name. How he figured his parents would be in New York City is beyond me, but he arrives to Manhattan and begins to follow the music in his head.
He manages to find Washington Square Park where he was conceived (although he doesn't know it), and befriends a feisty young busker who plays guitar in the park and gives his earnings to a crazy guy named Wizard (Robbin Williams) in exchange for food and shelter. Basically, Wizard is like Fagin (of Oliver Twist), and from what I gather, August Rush is supposed to be a modern-day play on the Oliver Twist tale... I think.
To get to the point without giving too much away (although, there is not much to give away if you have any inkling of common sense), Wizard discovers that Evan is a musical prodigy and sends the kid off to the park to play guitar under the stage name "August Rush" (hence the title of the movie. Ooooh... Ahhhh...), all while the social worker is on a prowl to find him. And then somewhere in between Evan running away from Wizard, and the sexy Irishman, Louis, becoming a bigwig sell out who returns to New York City to look for Lyla after more than a decade being MIA (why now, buddy?), Lyla finds out that her son is actually alive and begins to look for him.
So, let's recap: August is searching for his parents, the social working is searching for August, Lyla is also searching for August, and the sexy Irishman is searching for Lyla.
In the midst of this search fiasco, Evan discovers that he can miraculously read music and write Juilliard-worthy compositions after quickly being taught a silly mnemonic from a seven-year-old. There is no denying that Evan is a prodigy (the boy picked up guitar in 0.5 seconds without any former training), but even if you're Jimi Hendrix and Mozart rolled into one, it does not mean that you can teach yourself how to read music notes without a single tutorial handbook insight! It's like quickly reciting the alphabet to someone who is illiterate in a language that they can only speak, and expect them to know how to read and write after that... Oh wait a second, I almost forgot that August Rush is a fairy tale. Phew!
Although August Rush is completely unrealistic, I didn't expect much from a movie that was clearly advertised as a fairy tale. There are fantastic scenes that show just how powerful the role of music plays in the movie, which for the A.D.D. generation might have lagged. My favorite of those were the intertwining scenes of Lyla playing cello at a Lincoln Center-esque hall and Louis rocking out at an underground venue; these two different sounds blended together to form a whole new sound that was so oxymoronic it was actually pretty damn good. This made me realize that the only character that I actually cared about in August Rush was the actual music; everyone else was so melodramatic that anything they did or say was mediocre, to say the least.
Since music plays the ultimate role as the compass in August Rush, everyone "follows the music" until they find each other in the end. Blah Blah Blah, let's kiss, marvel at the boy wonder, play some more music, shed a few tears, and live happily ever after.
I recommend this movie to the demographic that August Rush is targeting: children under the age of 15, adults over the age of 65 (preferably female), pregnant females who are hormonal and awe at the sight of anything sweet, chicks who like cheesy movies, and all of you Jonathan Rhys Meyers fans who have been waiting patiently for something new from the sexy Irishman.
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