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August Rush

The power of music to connect people and bring them together is used creatively in August Rush to tell a story of a boy trying to find his birth parents. The movie begins with cellist Lyla Novacek (Keri Russell) and Irish guitarist Louis Connelly (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers) meeting in New York City at a party and falling in love. After one night together, they plan to meet the next day at New York’s Washington Square, but Lyla’s father forces her to go to her next concert, and the lovers never see each other again. Lyla has become pregnant from her one night with Louis, but she gets struck by a car and is told by her father that she has lost the baby. Eleven years later, we see a boy named Evan Taylor (Freddie Highmore) living in a boys’ home in New York. He is convinced his birth parents are still alive and that he can find them using his gift of hearing music everywhere. It turns out that Evan is Lyla and Louis’s son, Lyla’s father having lied to her about the loss of her child. When Evan leaves the boys’ home one night and wanders the streets of New York, hoping to find his parents, he encounters Maxwell “Wizard” Wallace (Robin Williams), who sees the boy as a way to make money and gives him the name “August Rush.” Williams’s role is especially interesting as he seems at first to be a kindly figure, but darker implications of his character soon emerge. Through his time playing as a street musician for Wizard, and some time spent at the prestigious Julliard School of Music, August learns to play and write music, creating a composition of his own that he hopes his parents will hear and manage to find him with.

The film is well-acted and has wonderful scenes that illustrate the power of a song to connect people together, as evidenced by the recurrence of a song Lyla and Louis hear the night they meet. August Rush recognizes the power that music can have on those who love it and embrace it as part of their life. It shares that magic with the viewer too, creating a film that warms your heart and soul.

Written by: Jessica Chung

Reviewers Rating: 8.5
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