It tries very hard to be fanciful, lyrical, sentimental, magical, rapturous, romantic, heartwarming, tear-jerking and inspiring. The result, however, is a goulash of half-baked bathos.
Comment
11/21/07
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August Rush (2007)
38
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:116
Fresh:44
Rotten:72
Average Rating:4.8/10
Consensus: Though featuring a talented cast, August Rush cannot overcome the flimsy direction and schmaltzy plot.
Theatrical Release:Nov 21, 2007 Wide
Box Office: $31,529,568
Synopsis: AUGUST RUSH is part romance, part gentle fantasy, but this sweet drama is all heart. When young cellist Lyla (Keri Russell) and rock musician Louis (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) meet at a party in the mid... [More]
Starring: Freddie Highmore, Robin Williams, Keri Russell, Jonathan Rhys Meyers
Director: Kirsten Sheridan
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Reviews for August Rush
I dislike sentimentality where it doesn't belong, but there's something brave about the way August Rush declares itself and goes all the way with coincidence, melodrama and skillful tear-jerking.
11/21/07
Top CriticAn exercise in dissonance.
11/21/07
If August Rush is a fairy tale, it's an excruciatingly, sometimes hilariously oblivious one.
11/21/07
Top CriticWill his parents, through a magical, utterly unlikely yet strangely compelling of fate, come running once they hear the longing in their little maestro's edgily hip, borderline Ani DiFrancoid slap-strumming? Far be it from me to state the obvious.
11/21/07
We need to break out a whole new definition of cheesiness for a film like this, augmented by fake tears and vomit gestures.
11/21/07
Unapologetically preposterous, but it is a (very sweet) fairy tale and Highmore is captivating.
11/21/07
If sentimentality were a cymbal, it'd be like having a percussionist standing right behind you and crashing every other beat.
11/21/07
Its exertions are too obvious, and its story is too contrived for us to swallow it.
11/21/07
A light, fanciful touch at times bolsters its "fairy tale" feel, but at times the story incorporates just enough "realistic" elements to drag the whole thing back down to earth.
11/21/07
This is the sort of movie that requires you not only to suspend disbelief, but to check your sanity at the ticket counter.
11/21/07
Top CriticThink of it as a fairytale only with more of a ... oh, who am I kidding? I can't defend this.
11/21/07
I liked the movie, but I wanted to get caught up in it and swept away by the magic and it didn't quite make it over the rainbow.
11/21/07
Doesn'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.
11/21/07
Despite its flaws, the music is the ultimate star of this film and Freddy Highmore is a highlight. He plays the role with a truthfulness and innocence that hasn't been matched by a child actor in some time.
11/21/07
Before you can say one night stand, a pint sized street urchin is a big city superstar. American Idol for kids.
11/21/07
An aggressively bad movie. There are times when it tips the scales of absurdity and becomes almost comical.
11/21/07
Top CriticTo describe August Rush as a piece of shameless hokum doesn’t quite do justice to the potentially shock-inducing sugar content of this contemporary fairy tale.
11/21/07
Top CriticIt can be admired for trying something a little different from the usual family film, but in the end, it just doesn't work. At all.
11/21/07
Pleasant, emotional, fable-like family drama.
11/20/07
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