Stop and Hear the Music!: August Rush (2007)

     Upon seeing my post for The Art of Getting By, my friend suggested that I watch August Rush which also featured Freddie Highmore in it. And I’m glad she did! All throughout the movie, I was tense to see if it will resolve in a happy ending. Did it? Well, you have to see to find out. Stop and hear the music!

     

     August Rush is an artfully depicted film about music, love, passion and family. The plot is centered on young Evan Taylor (young Freddie Highmore), an orphan who has stayed in a boy’s home throughout his whole life. Even if he’s alone his resolve never wanes being convinced that his parents will find him, that he only needs to follow the music. There is an interweaving of the backstory regarding Evan Taylor’s abandonment. Lila Novacek (Keri Russell) is a gifted ceilist who falls in love with guitarist and band member Louis (Jonathan Meyers). They met and fell for each other that one night and had a baby, but through the cruel twist of fate, they all become separated from one another. Eleven years later, Evan gets lost through New York and goes through several situations eventually composing the perfect music, performed in front of thousands of people, that will being all three of them together as a family.

    

     This movie is like a musical but I think the music factor pulls off brilliantly. Music here is depicted like it’s one of the senses of the body, as normal as breathing, can be seen every single day everywhere, more important than food. This is what musical prodigy Evan, rebirthed as August Rush, feels that will be the driving force towards his goal. Definitely a good flick for musical appreciation.

     

     Besides the music, the drama makes it so artful and sensitive. It’s like musicians are in a different level from normal human beings: they hear music through the moon. I’m no Julliard graduate but I think this never (or I haven’t been exposed) happens in real life and it is so utterly far-fetched, whimsical and dramatic. But spare me the criticisms on it being utterly idealistic. I was rooting for Evan all the way and I liked to be indulged in a typical happy ending since all the parties involved deserved it.

     

     This story that is beautifully interwoven is designed to make you cry; it is sensitive, almost poetic in a musical kind of way; it is artful through the sense of hearing. If things can be resolved in how Evan does it, then all we need to is to stop and hear the music. Anyone into the whole idealistic, musical dramatic film with a good resolution should take a moment to watch August Rush. Stop and hear the music, it will give you the shivers.