Freddie Highmore's got an allure. That's what I kept thinking throughout this film. His small sweet dimple and his frank toothiness are just about the things that will keep you going when you're slightly sickened by Scottish/Irish warbles by Johanathan Rhys Meyers. Keri Russel on the other hand, is much more tolerable than the guy who actually makes your sweet tooth hurt when he smiles. Really. Too much. I need to gag every time he comes onscreen. And the odd part is, I don't even know why.
The story revolves around a small boy in a children's home who insists that he 'hears music' and can also 'hear his parents' through this music. At the brunt of many a tease and in desperation to find his parents, Evan (Highmore) manages to run away from his shelter and comes to New York where his music carries him to an abandoned theater where musical runaways such as himself manage to make a living under the care and supervision of the the bordering-on-insane street-borne "The Wizard" (Robin Williams) who provides him the realization that he has a gift unlike any other and names him August Rush. Evan's talent also takes him all the way from a church choir ("Raise It Up" - also performed at the Oscars) to Julliard School of Music onto August's Rhapsody in C Minor at Central Park.
The film is cliched and nauseating as it can possibly be when it comes to the romance of Conolley and Novacek, but is as unique and touching when it comes to the story of August Rush who hears beyond the music of instruments and notes.
A work of art with its dramatic and musical connections in the film and a captivating performance by the little boy that could. Bravo. Bravo, indeed.
