I recently watched one of the most maddening movies I have ever seen. It was maddening because I both love it and hate it; embrace some of the worldviews it presents and reject others. Still, it did what good movies should do: it left me with many things to think about long after the credits rolled.
August Rush is the story of a boy named Evan who is growing up in the 'system', not knowing who his parents were or what happened to them. He goes through life hearing music- in everything. In the course of trying to find his parents, who he believes he is connected to by music, many strange things happens to him. First, he runs away to New York City, where he gets entangled with a man called "Wizard"- a creepy man who I never got a complete understanding of. The Wizard has him out on the street playing a guitar for money under the name 'August Rush'. After a police raid of the condemned theater where the Wizard is, he ends up in a church, where he meets a young girl who discovers his Mozart-like genius. The kindly reverend of the church takes him to Julliard, where he thrives, and ends up writing a fantastic orchestral piece.
Throughout the movie Evan's story is intertwined with his parents- his mother, a famous cellist, and his father, an Irish boy who was part of a rock band with his brothers. We see the way that his parents met and were separated, and that his father didn't know of his existence, while his mother thought he was dead. The story could have come out trite and cliche, but somehow, it didn't. The way the music of his mother overlaps with that of his father is a particularly intriguing combination, and the use of music to bring everything together was a particularly enjoyable plot device. Subtle humor throughout kept this movie from being overly dark, though it definitely deserved its PG rating. Simply because of the many thought-provoking moments in it, I would recommend it- though, because of its intensity in some places, I agree with my Dad who deemed it best for ages 13 and up.
Monday, January 17, 2011
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