August Rush Review

"August Rush" is a clear case of stupid title, stupid film. It's also one of those films where the trailer gives away the entire thing, so there's really no point in watching it at all.

Freddie Highmore ("Finding Neverland") stars as Evan Taylor, an 11-year-old orphan who can hear music in the natural world around him. Believing that the power of music will reunite him with the parents he's never met, he heads for New York, where he gets taken in by the mysterious Wizard (Robin Williams, looking like a cross between Fagin and a ginger Bono). Realising that Evan is a musical genius, Wizard gives him the stage name August Rush and tries to make money out of his talent. Meanwhile, flashbacks reveal how Evan's cellist mother, Lyla (Keri Russell) was separated from his musician father, Louis (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) shortly after they fell in love, and that she had always believed she lost her child in a car accident. When she discovers the truth, she sets about trying to find Evan, with the help of Terrence Howard's kindly social worker. At the same time, Louis feels compelled to resume his search for Lyla and returns to New York.

"August Rush" is painfully predictable from start to finish and director Kirsten Sheridan ("Disco Pigs") fails to create the fairytale atmosphere that the story desperately needs. Indeed, the only spark of originality lies in Evan's ability to create wild new sounds from a guitar by, er, slapping it around a bit.

In addition, the dialogue is both horribly clunky and laughably bad in places, while the performances are excruciating to watch, particularly Williams and the terminally wooden Russell.

In short, this is the sort of film that you should just politely ignore in the hope that it will go away.