August Rush

Infobox Film
name = August Rush


caption = Promotional poster
director = Kirsten Sheridan
producer = Richard Barton Lewis
writer = Nick Castle
James V. Hart
Paul Castro
starring = Freddie Highmore
Keri Russell
Jonathan Rhys Meyers
Robin Williams
Terrence Howard
William Sadler
Alex O'Loughlin
music = Mark Mancina
cinematography = John Mathieson
editing = William Steinkamp
distributor = Warner Bros.
released = November 21, 2007
runtime = 113 min.
country = United States
language = English
budget = $25 million
gross =
website = http://augustrushmovie.warnerbros.com/
amg_id = 1:319428
imdb_id = 0426931

"August Rush" is a 2007 drama film directed by Kirsten Sheridan and written by Paul Castro, Nick Castle, and James V. Hart, and produced by Richard Barton Lewis.

Plot

A boy named Evan Taylor (Freddie Highmore) lives in an orphanage, all the while believing that his parents are alive. He believes the music that he hears all around him is his parents communicating with him. He meets a counselor, Richard Jeffries (Terrence Howard), of the New York Child Services Department. Evan tells him he does not want to be adopted, because he believes his parents are still alive and will come to collect him eventually.

Through a series of flashbacks, his parents are revealed to be named Lyla Novacek, (Keri Russell), a famous concert cellist, and Louis Connelly (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), an Irish guitarist and lead singer of a rock band, who spent one romantic night together and never saw each other again. Lyla became pregnant, which her father did not approve of, instead wanting Lyla to have a successful career without the obstacle of a child. After an argument with her father, Lyla ran out of a restaurant and was hit by a car. While in hospital, she gave birth to a son. Afterwards, she was told by her father that her child had died, unaware that he had actually been delivered successfully and then been sent to an orphanage by her father.

Evan has a strong faith that as long as he follows the music he hears and reacts to it, he will have a chance to be found by his parents. He makes his way to New York City, where he is taken in by a man known as "Wizard" (Robin Williams), who houses various orphans and runaways, employing them to play music on the streets and taking a large cut of their tips. Evan immediately proves to be a musical child prodigy. Wizard enlists him and gives him the name "August Rush", convincing him he will be sent back to the orphanage if his real name is ever discovered.

Lyla only discovers that her son is alive when her father, knowing that he is dying, confesses what actually happened. Lyla immediately sets out to New York to look for her 11-year-old son.

Louis has never forgotten Lyla and does not know about Evan. Both have since given up music careers.

After a raid by the police, Evan takes refuge in a church, where he again impresses with his natural musical talent and is enrolled at the Juilliard School as "August Rush." A work he composes is chosen to be performed by the New York Philharmonic in Central Park, but Wizard barges into a rehearsal, and Evan reluctantly follows him back to his life of performing music on the streets.

Meanwhile, Lyla has discovered Evan's identity and has decided to stay in New York while searching for her son. While there, she decides to resume her cello career. She is then chosen to play in the same concert, which features Evan's piece. Louis, being wrongly told that Lyla has since married, also returns to New York to resume playing with his former band. He has a chance meeting with Evan in Washington Square Park and they play music together, although neither knows who the other is.

The night of the concert, Evan finally chooses to run from Wizard in favor of performing at his concert. In the meantime, Louis races to the park when he sees Evan's pseudonym along with Lyla's name on a sign billing the concert. Evan conducts his piece, and at its conclusion, he turns around to see Lyla and Louis standing hand in hand, and he finally makes the connection that they are his parents.

Cast

*Freddie Highmore - Evan Taylor / August Rush
*Keri Russell - Lyla Novacek
*Jonathan Rhys Meyers - Louis Connelly
*Robin Williams - Maxwell "Wizard" Wallace
*Terrence Howard - Counselor Richard Jeffries
*William Sadler - Thomas Novacek
*Jamia Simone Nash - Hope
*Kaki King - Evan Taylor's hands (for all the guitar shots)
*Leon G. Thomas III - Arthur

Music

*"Moondance"
Written by Van Morrison, Performed by Jonathan Rhys Meyers
*"This Time"
Written by Chris Trapper, Performed by Jonathan Rhys Meyers
*"Bari Improv"
Written by Mark Mancina and Kaki King, Performed by Kaki King
*"Ritual Dance"
Written by Michael Hedges, Performed by Kaki King
*"Raise It Up"
Written by Impact Repertory Theatre, Performed by Jamia Simone Nash and Impact Repertory Theatre
Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song
*"Dueling Guitars"
Written by Heitor Pereira, Performed by Heitor Pereira and Doug Smith
*"Someday"
Written and Performed by John Legend
*"August's Rhapsody"

The final number with Lyla and Louis begins with Lyla playing the Adagio-Moderato from Edward Elgar's Cello Concerto in E Minor.

Except for "Dueling Guitars", all of August's guitar pieces were played by American guitarist-composer Kaki King, performing as his hands for the movie.

Composer Mark Mancina spent over a year and a half composing the score of August Rush. "The heart of the story is how we respond and connect through music. It's about this young boy who believes that he's going to find his parents through his music. That's what drives him."citequote|article The final theme of the movie was composed first. "That way I could take bits and pieces of the ending piece and relate it to the things that are happening in (August's) life. All of the themes are pieces of the puzzle, so at the end it means something because you've been subliminally hearing it throughout the film."citequote|article The score was recorded at the Todd-AO Scoring Stage and the Eastwood Scoring Stage at Warner Brothers.cite news | author=Dan Goldwasser | url=http://www.scoringsessions.com/sessions/1517/ | title=Scoring Session Photo Gallery from "August Rush" | publisher=ScoringSessions.com | accessdate=2008-02-29 ]

Reception

In a review by "USA Today", Claudia Puig commented that "August Rush" will not be for everyone, but it works if you surrender to its lilting and unabashedly sentimental tale of evocative music and visual poetry."cite web|url=http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/reviews/2007-11-20-august-rush_N.htm|title=Lilting 'August Rush' is poetry in emotion|accessdate=2008-02-29 |author=Puig, Claudia|publisher="USA Today"] "The Hollywood Reporter" reviewed the film positively, writing "the story is about musicians and how music connects people, so the movie's score and songs, created by composers Mark Mancina and Hans Zimmer, give poetic whimsy to an implausible tale."cite web|url=http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/imdb/reviews/article_display.jsp?rid=10174&vnu_special_account_code=thrsiteimdbpro|title=August Rush|accessdate=2008-02-29|author=Honeycutt, Kirk|date=November 08, 2007|publisher="The Hollywood Reporter"]

On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 36% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 110 reviews. "Consensus: Though featuring a talented cast, August Rush cannot overcome the flimsy direction and schmaltzy plot." [cite web|url=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/august_rush/ |title=August Rush — Rotten Tomatoes |accessdate=2007-11-27 |publisher=Rotten Tomatoes] On Metacritic, the film had an average score of 38 out of 100, based on 27 reviews. [cite web|url=http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/augustrush |title=August Rush (2007): Reviews |accessdate=2007-11-27 |publisher=Metacritic]

Pam Grady of the "San Francisco Chronicle" called the film "an inane musical melodrama." Grady said "the entire story is ridiculous" and "Coincidences pile on, behavior and motivations defy logic, and the characters are so thinly drawn that most of the cast is at a loss." She adds "the ending of the movie certainly did not impress me at all." they worked so hard on the rest of it but it came to a sudden end that left the movie unfinished." [cite web|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/11/21/DD7GTFC2K.DTL&type=movies |title=Review: Orphan has a song in his heart in 'August Rush' |accessdate=2007-11-27 |author=Pam Grady |date=2007-11-21 |work=San Francisco Chronicle] Edward Douglas of comingsoon.net said it "dosen't take long for the movie to reveal itself as an extremely contrived and predictable movie that tries too hard to tug on the heartstrings."citequote|article

Roger Ebert gave the movie three stars, calling it "a movie drenched in sentimentality, but it's supposed to be. The movie also came to a very sudden end leaving it unfinshed." [cite news |author=Roger Ebert |url=http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071120/REVIEWS/711200301/1023 |title=August Rush |work=Chicago Sun-Times |date=2007-11-21 |accessdate=2007-11-26]

Jamila Gavin compared the film to Dickens' "Oliver Twist" and Coram Boy. [cite web|url=http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/movies/chi-071121august-story,1,4894841.story|title="August Rush" ("Oliver Twist" reset in N.Y.) — 2 stars|author=Smith, Sid|publisher=Chicago Tribune|date=2007-11-21|accessdate=2007-12-15|quote=Turn to the master, Charles Dickens, or better yet, update and recycle him. Such must have been the thinking behind "August Rush," a thinly disguised retelling of "Oliver Twist," transplanted to contemporary New York and sweetened by a theme of the healing magic of music.] [cite web|url=http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/movies/11915801.html|title= Movie review: Romanticism trumps reason in "Rush"|publisher=Star Tribune|author=Covert, Colin|date=2007-11-20|accessdate=2007-12-15|quote=If Charles Dickens were alive today, he might be writing projects like "August Rush," the unabashedly sentimental tale of a plucky orphan lad who falls in with streetwise urchins as he seeks the family he ought to have. Come to think of it, Dickens did write that one, and called it "Oliver Twist."]

Shawn Johnson used August's Rhapsody during her Floor Exercise performance during the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Awards

The soundtrack has songs from new and established acts. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song ("Raise it Up").

References

External links

* [http://augustrushmovie.warnerbros.com/ Official site]
*imdb title|id=0426931|title=August Rush
*rotten-tomatoes|id=august_rush|title=August Rush
*metacritic film|id=augustrush|title=August Rush
*mojo title|id=augustrush|title=August Rush
*amg movie|id=1:319428|title=August Rush
* [http://www.scoringsessions.com/sessions/1517 Scoring Session Photo Gallery at ScoringSessions.com]