August Rush

NEW YORK (CNS) -- A warm-hearted tribute to the power of music, "August Rush" (Warner Bros.) is a fable that blithely eschews all connection to reality in favor of a world where anything is possible.

When Irish singer-songwriter Louis Connelly (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) encountered classical cellist Lyla Novacek (Keri Russell) on a rooftop overlooking Washington Square 12 years before, the two fell instantly in love. Their union was not fated to last, however. Lyla's ambitious father, Thomas (William Sadler), who was determined nothing should get in the way of her promising career, whisked her off to her next performance venue before she could keep her rendezvous with Louis. Thinking Lyla had willingly forsaken him, Louis fell into despair and abandoned his music.

Discovering that she was pregnant, Lyla planned to bestow all the love on her child that was denied her with Louis. When she was hit by a car before giving birth, her father told her that she had lost the baby, though he had actually given up the baby for adoption. Evan (Freddie Highmore) grows up in an orphanage, taunted by the other orphans because he refuses to admit that his parents are either dead or indifferent to him. Even kindly social worker Richard Jeffries (Terrence Howard), though he takes an interest in the boy, is unable to offer him much hope.

Yet Evan -- an unusually gifted child keenly attuned to the music of nature -- remains convinced that his parents are indeed alive and want to be with him. So he makes his way to New York City to find them.

A street ruffian encounters the lost boy and brings him to a Fagin-like character known as Wizard (Robin Williams), an ex-musician, whose "family" of urchins perform for change. When Evan spontaneously displays a prodigious musical gift, Wizard sees a gold mine in the boy, whom he has renamed "August Rush" (from an ad he saw on a passing bus), and conspires to hinder Evan's search.

Irish director Kristen Sheridan's unabashedly romantic film follows a path strewn with improbabilities. Those willing to check their disbelief at the door and simply root for the film's appealing characters will probably find "August Rush" charmingly poetic. The more resistant may think it merely naive.

The film contains an implied premarital sexual encounter, one use of profanity, one use of the s-word and one crass expression. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-II -- adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG -- parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.

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Copyright (c) 2007 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops