A couple of days ago I sat through a movie (at home) called August Rush but I think I only saw about half of it because my eyes were constantly rolling into the back of my head.
First let me say that I do enjoy good heart warming movies, as long as they are honest in their approach and bring a good story along with the sweetness. In fact, that is why I decided to watch August Rush in the first place. However I found it was, from the beginning, unrelenting in its attempts to pull on the heart strings without giving us any real reason to care. It felt so full of clichés and scenes we’ve seen many times before in other movies. I mean come on, please tell me that Mrs. Doubtfire his-own-self didn’t just suddenly pick out a new name for the kid from some text that just happened to be in his field of vision at the time.
Poor but gifted orphan boy – check.
Teased and misunderstood by other boys – check.
Runs away to find much better life with seemingly loving and unselfish street people – check.
Tormented rocker father and Julliard alum cellist mother – check …He was a skater boy, she said see you later boy… oh sorry, I just drifted off there for a second. Also, these two just happen to meet on a rooftop, under a full moon no less, where they instantly fall in love and decide to make a baby right there and then. How romantic, mystical and free spirited of them.
Anyway, speaking of Freddie Highmore, although he definitely pushed his luck with me in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and in Finding Neverland I just managed to tolerate him those two times. This time though, I’m afraid he’s gone too far. He is suspiciously good at crying on cue and is way too emoting and just overall annoying. I mean there must be thousands of other boys who could be in some of these movies. Why does it always have to be him? I say it’s about time we give some other kid a shot at being the misunderstood weepy genius nerd.
In the end, when all is said and done, and what it all comes down to is this. August Rush is a one trick pony that feels like a collection of clichés and overused bits and pieces of other tear jerkers. It places all its eggs in the “let’s get them crying” basket which unfortunately has a huge hole in the bottom. I don’t mind and can even enjoy a good bit of sugar as long as it is riding on something much more substantial to keep it in check. August Rush though is missing the substance and I felt like I was being force fed straight sugar and I’m afraid it was just too much to take. Actually I must admit, it wasn’t just straight sugar, there was also a significant amount of cheese as well but I’m afraid that only made things worse.
3 comments:
I totally agree. I saw this when it came out on rentals, and I had high hopes, only to be let down. I did try to just "go with the feeling" and not try to analyze too much, but in the end found it very lacking. Too bad, I think it could have been done better and been a bit more believable.
But did you like the music? I loved the cello/rock combination.
Tanis - The actual music was good but I found Keri Russell's way too fake cello playing and zombie like behaviour every time she got on stage to be a big distraction.
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