If you want to see a very good, perhaps bordering on great, movie–go and see August Rush. I highly recommend it.

The title of the movie, like many movies, has nothing to do with its content. It is a modern-day fairy tale–the story of a young boy in an orphanage who is convinced that his parents are “out there” and don’t know he’s alive. The orphanage is somewhere in good ole Upstate New York. The young boy, whose name is Evan Taylor, escapes from the orphanage and travels to New York City where he ends up in the employ of a nefarious man (played by Robin Williams) who uses young children to play music and earn money for him. Hmmm… let’s see–boy in orphanage, ends up in the big city, goes to work for a man who takes advantage of kids–sound familiar? Of course! It has elements of Oliver Twist woven throughout the movie.

Not only are there Dickensian elements here, there’s a lot of great music. You see, it turns out young Evan is a musical prodigy in the mold of Mozart. Can anyone say Amadeus? Although having never touched a musical instrument in his young 12 years of life, when introduced to first the guitar, and later the piano, Evan immediately takes to them like a fish born to swim. And the music he makes! It’s fantastic. Young Evan, who takes on the “stage name” of August Rush, is soon discovered by The Julliard School where he attends and composes his first symphony.

Beyond that, I don’t want to spoil the ending, which had me wanting to stand up and cheer. It was that kind of movie.

I have but two criticisms: One is that young Evan is the result of a “one night fling.” Without revealing more of the plot, I will only say that even this element has some redeeming qualities. I was disappointed they chose to craft the storyline in that manner, but movies are not perfect in this day and age. I’m not excusing it lightly–just saying that this element should not remove it from consideration as a potentially great movie. The second thing is that the plot drags a bit here and there. But just about the time you think to yourself, “they could speed things along,” it picks up again.

Overall, I’m not sure I would give this movie a designation of “great” as in my list of top 10 of all-time favorites…but it comes really close to that. I give it a “highly recommend” to go and see. The music, the plot and themes, are the kind of family-friendly movies I wish Hollywood made more of. This one deserves our support.

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