August Rush is actually Evan Taylor, a musical prodigy who grew up in an orphanage. In the first third of the film, time moves around from a 10-year old (or so) Evan at the orphanage back to the fateful meeting and hookup of his parents. They’re the explanation for his musical genius. Mom Lyla Novacek (Keri Russell) is an outstanding cellist; dad Louis Connelly (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) is a soulful rock ‘n’ roll Irish guitarist, fronting the Connelly Brothers Band. They meet at a party in New York one night after both have just had successful concerts; neither’s a real party animal, and they find each other when they both escape to the building’s rooftop to get away from all the bustle below. There’s some mood music going, a street musician wandering off into the night playing “Moondance” on the harmonica, and one thing leads to the other …
Their friends find them the next morning; Lyla’s aghast. She has a controlling father who’s not going to like this one bit, but she promises to meet up with Louis again before she dashes off. But dad nixes that, and Louis is left to watch her ride away, leaving him behind.
There’s a bit more back and forth to show us how lost Lyla and Louis are without each other. Lyla learns she’s pregnant, but when she gets into an argument with her father, storms out of the restaurant into traffic, and ends up in the hospital, he lets her think the baby died. (We know better, because we’ve not only already met Evan, but we know he’s run away from the orphanage in search of the parents he knows are out there and who he knows want him.
There’s more about Lyla and Louis, but the rest of their story is relatively easy to follow. As for Evan himself, he’s a prodigy with a capital P. He hears music in everything, and when he meets up in New York with a group of kid street musicians and their mentor/pimp/Fagin-figure (a scary Robin Williams), it turns out he can play the guitar. And then, once he slips into a church choir rehearsal and is befriended by a girl his age who lives in the church’s shelter and sings in the choir, it turns out he can write music. And then he gets into Julliard, and it turns out he can score a symphony. And all of it as a means to getting connected to his mysterious parents.
You can probably already guess where this is going. It’s not a simple story, and it’s not told simply on screen. To the extent that it works pretty well, it’s due to the performances. Russell and Rhys Meyers are appropriately tormented as Lyla and Louis (especially Rhys Meyers), and Williams is by turns charming and monstrous as “Wizard” Wallace. (Oh, and guess what – he was the guy playing the harmonica when Lyla and Louis hooked up.) Evan/August is played by Freddie Highmore, who’s nearly as much an acting prodigy as Evan is a musical prodigy. Evan is a pretty strange role, but Highmore makes him believable and lovable. Terrence Howard has a small part as a NYC social worker who helps both Evan and Lyla, and Jamia Simone Nash gets to show off her vocal chops as the little girl who befriends Evan.
The special features on the disc are limited, just some additional scenes. Without knowing exactly where they would have been placed in the film, it’s hard to know if they would have helped to straighten out the story line; they offer a little more detail on Lyla’s and Louis’ characters.
Language options are English Dolby Surround 5.1 and French and Spanish Dolby Surround Stereo. While this isn’t a musical, there is a lot of music in it, made by Lyla, Louis and Evan. (I’m pretty sure that only Rhys Meyers is REALLY playing/singing.)
The person I watched August Rush with found it overly confusing and not at all believable, but I’m a sucker for happy endings and I think you can follow the story as long as you pay attention. If you’ve enjoyed any of the leads’ past work, this is certainly worth watching, and you might even shed a quiet tear or two.