Is there anyone cuter on the planet than Keri Russell? Her pixie-ish face, her bouncy hair, her perfect skin (and no Aveda endorsement yet! How odd!) OK, one could argue that Jonathan Rhys Meyers is cute, but one would be wrong – he’s HAWT!!! He sings! He cuddles!! He makes love to you with his eyes!!! Lord, what is it about men with pouty lips? Put the two of them together with a kid who can actually pull attention away from the insanely over-the-top Robin Williams, a kick-ass soundtrack and an uneven script, and you have August Rush.
It’s not that it’s the greatest movie in the world, and certainly not the destined-to-be holiday classic that Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead is, but it’s loaded with schmaltz and is clumsy in it’s attempts to manipulate the audience.
And I was so willing to be manipulated by this movie.
The story isn’t new – upper class girl meets and gets pregnant by a blue collar guy before they are torn cruelly apart – but having their kid be the force that draws them all back together is pretty novel. August is prepossessed by music – he hears it everywhere and runs away to where it seems to be coming from – New York, the city of his conception. Then Robin Williams appears and the movie goes into a strange Hook-like tailspin for 40 minutes or so. I mean, orphaned kids who busk for their Faginesque guardian and make their home in an abandoned theatre complete with trapdoors and a slide. It stinks of Trevor Nunn. I hate that Robin Williams’ humor has taken a masochistic bent of late, even if it disguises itself as “physical comedy”. Ever since One Hour Photo, he’s become disturbing and unfunny. His character in August Rush, “Wizard”, just seems to bring the creepiness to the surface and give it a face.
But back to the good stuff.
Maybe it’s because we’re in the holiday season and I’m excited to go to PA and see my family, but little thing that even hint at separation are setting me off on long crying jags lately: commercials for the Human Society, The Lion King, Brothers & Sisters (best damn show on TV!!), and now August Rush. Maybe I’m having my gay male period. Whatever it may be, I found a real earnestness in August’s whole-hearted belief that he was loved and that someone would come for him. As August, Freddie Highmore is never coy or precocious or ironic. He’s a serious little boy who has a talent for music and a belief in parents who love him. Kid’s going places. Watch for him.
A final thing I liked about the movie was actually a long preview for the upcoming The Golden Compass. Loving the books so much and knowing that all references to Dust and God have been removed, there really hasn’t been any pull for me to see the movie. Until this trailer. Yeah, the atheistic heart of the movie has been removed (and, honestly, I’m about one papal encyclical away from being an atheist out of spite), but there were moments that seemed to have the book down pat. Who am I kidding? I’m going to see it no matter what, but my eagerness to see it may change between now and then.
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