August Rush

Rating: 7
Genre: Drama

August Rush is a movie about a boy who was orphaned as a baby and grows up with constant music in his head (played by Freddie Highmore who also had the lead role in Spiderwick Chronicles). He has an instinctual belief that his parents are out there somewhere trying to find him. Well, they aren’t.

OK, just kidding – of course they are! It’s a Hollywood movie, after all. But, so I don’t ruin the story for you, I won’t go into the details. The important thing is that the music he hears guides his journey. The movie is endearing and full of wonderment and ends far better than most other movies. Like a great symphony, this movie ebbs and flows with interjecting tones chiming in at specific points of the piece to accent the mood. It hits major and minor keys, and changes pace several times, finally ending on a full-on crescendo.

Keri Russell (who played in one of my favorite movies – Waitress) plays the mom and does a great job. The dad is played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Terrence Howard plays the social worker.

Overall, the movie was pretty good – albeit predictable in parts. Pretty cool guitar parts. Robin Williams plays the role of a crazy street dad to homeless kids. He dresses like he raided Bono’s wardrobe. He’s pretty much a freak in the movie but does have one of its best lines:

“You know what music is? God's little reminder that there's something else besides us in this universe, a harmonic connection between all living beings, every where, even the stars.”

On a side note, the boy reminds me of myself in many ways (except for the musical genius orphan part… however, I hear music in my head all the time, I am adopted into God’s family, and will sing before God in Heaven one day - so there’s the similarity!). Also check out this link and you may be able to see why I connected with this movie: http://writingsofroyce.blogspot.com/2008/12/challenge.html