"August Rush" is a would-be fairy tale about an orphan who follows his own drummer, his own cellist, and his own guitarist to a reunion with his musician parents.
It has a clunky tone that teeters between musical mysticism and a much grittier account of life on the New York streets, where the boy goes to find his folks.
It's directed by Kristen Sheridan, Jamey's kid, and she no doubt got this job for her role in blending the magical with the real in the wonderful immigrant saga "In America."
Here, though, the mix of the fanciful and the real is problematic. There are not only glaring shifts in tone and chronology, but a jumble of genres that make for a busy narrative - what starts out as an orphan's story (which ends up borrowing from "Oliver Twist") shares time with a romantic-destiny saga that takes the viewer all the way back to the boy's conception.
A stage-managed cellist (Keri Russell) escapes her domineering dad long enough to blow off steam at a party, where she has a star-dusty encounter with a singer/guitarist (Jonathan Rhys Meyers). She's a little bit classic, he's a little bit rock 'n' roll, and she gets a little bit pregnant.
Dad is furious, and in a botched plot point manages to ship the baby off for adoption before the bleary mom awakes in the delivery room.
All the while, "August Rush" continues to follow the boy as he runs away, reaches New York, falls in with a Fagin-ish character (Robin Williams, looking creepy in ways not intended), and learns how to play guitar on the street for pizza money.
It's a very messy story (despite obvious hacking), and gets more crowded still, with a kindly social worker (Terrence Howard) and a kindly preacher (Mykelti Williamson) who takes the kid in, spots him as a budding genius, and enrolls him in Juilliard.
Whew.
You kind of want to root for "August Rush," because it obviously does not set out to be a cloying piece of sentimental junk. It's hugely ambitious, with its big, sprawling story and its overriding idea that music guides the destiny of its character (composer Mark Mancina obviously worked hard on this important score).
Nice try, but it doesn't really work, and looks especially messy and corny next to a beautifully simple, music-driven romance like "Once," the Irish indie that came to theaters earlier this year.*
Produced by Richard Barton Lewis, directed by Kristen Sheridan, written by Nick Castle, Paul Castro, music by Mark Mancina, distributed by Warner Bros.
