Reviewed on Tuesday, 13 Nov, 2007

Until last night, I was convinced that the best movie to watch when you’re feeling blue is a comedy. I’m beginning to think that I was wrong. Movies that inspire and encourage you seem to be the antidote for a troubled heart. After the laughs from a comedic movie have subsided, there is still a longing, a void in the spirit that isn’t quite filled.

August Rush is a magical blend of the type of hope and unwavering faith that is borne in childhood and unfortunately jaded and diminished as time and life experiences takes a toll on a human life. Freddie Highmore gets his first top billing as the boy who is convinced that he will be reunited with the parents who love him and are equally invested in finding him as well despite all evidence to the contrary. In the face of incredibly insurmountable odds, he remains focused on following the music that will lead him home.

Along his journey, he encounters a series of colorful characters; some of whom have his best interests at heart and some who have poorly obscured hidden agendas. Two stand outs are Jamia Nash (Hope) and Leon Thomas (Arthur) two beautifully gifted young musicians who befriend and unwittingly teach the essence of music to Evan along the way.

Robin Williams does a chilling turn as Wizard, a smarmy mixture of the Pied Piper of Hamlin and Fagin in Oliver Twist. He inspires fear in his charges under the guise that under his tutelage they would be safer than being left at the mercy of the system he so despises…perhaps because they failed him in some way? It becomes all too clear that after discovering that August (nee Evan) is a musical genius that his concern has more to do with his love of the almighty dollar than protecting ‘throwaway’ kids.

Keri Russell (Lyla) and Jonathan Rhys Meyers (Louis) made you believe in the possibility of love at first sight. After losing the light of her eyes through an ostensibly ‘fatherly’ gesture, Lyla set out to find the answer that was denied her ten years, two months and 21 days prior. Ironically, at the same time, Louis gives in to what he has running from and simultaneously drawn to, his love for a woman he only met once.

All three are brought together in a symbiotic realization that they were drawn together by the very thing that united them so completely. Finally, they were reunited by the music that called them all together, the same night, the same place, the same time, sharing the same heart. This movie reminds us to listen to the child inside of all of us by believing in the possibility……of whatever our dreams may be.

Grade A