Movie Review - August Rush

Saw this on a sneak preview night and since then have purchased the original soundtrack and am anxiously waiting for the dvd to come out. Below is my review based on seeing it in the theater.

(They had a special showing on Saturday night, so I saw this one. Officially opens this weekend.)

Boy meets girl on roof top. Boy is appreciating music being played on street corner and invites girl to join him and they enjoy music together. (She is a cellist, he is a singer.) One thing leads to another and she gets pregnant but her dad doesn't approve of the boy, so when the girl is hit by a car, the dad decides to tell her the baby didn't make it. (He doesn't want a baby holding her back from her potential to be a professional musician.) Flash forward 11 years and you see a boy at an orphanage who doesn't want to be placed with a family because he is convinced his mom and dad will come back for him, so he runs away and find a kid playing guitar on the streets. Following him to where he lives, he sees that several other kids are living in an old, abandoned church with a much older man who is using the kids to play music out on the street while he profits from their hard work. The boy is a musical prodigy, learning both guitar and piano and composes songs in just a matter of months, and soon becomes the favorite of the old man - who sees only dollar signs. The boy is convinced that he can hear his mom and dad and that if he plays his music, they will be able to hear him, too, and then they'll know where to find him and they can all be a family.

Ok, so the story about being able to "hear" his parents and the mom being able to "hear" the son....that part is pretty hokey, BUT otherwise the story was great, the music was EXCELLENT and you genuinely cared about the characters and wanted to see them all get together. This one is worth watching again and again if for nothing else, the music. And an added bonus is that with the exception of the young boy, the songs are really performed by the actors. (Keri Russell plays the cello. Jonathan Rhys Meyers sings in a band with his brothers.)

There wasn't a dry eye in the theater by the end of the movie....and there were people there of all ages, all races, and BOTH genders that were having trouble keeping it together because of the powerful ending.

Highly, highly recommended ... especially if you like good music. But also...in my opinion....Keri Russell has never looked prettier and Jonathan Rhys Meyers was H-O-T-T-T-T!!!!

Vixy :]