August Rush

Watching films can have various effects on a person. Some make us laugh, others make us cry. Some get us fired up and ready to go out and take on the world; still others make us feel angry and frustrated. And then there are the films that give us the chills and fill us with wonder and awe. ‘August Rush’ is one of those films.
In a home for boys, located in the state of New York, lives a young boy who wants nothing more than to find his parents. He has no proof that this will happen, he has never met his parents, he doesn’t even know what their names are, but he knows that they will find each other someday. When the other boys at the home ridicule him for his hope, when kind social workers express their doubt, Evan Taylor keeps on believing that the music he hears in the world around him will lead him home someday.
Eleven years and fifteen days earlier, the music led his parents together. A concert cellist with a glittering career ahead of her and a determined father at her back and an Irish singer/songwriter with a rock band that he tours with his brothers. They are brought together by chance one night, a night that changes their lives. After that one night together, his parents never saw each other again and they nearly give up on the music that plays in their hearts.
It’s that music that prompts their son to run away from the boy’s home and draws him to the busy streets of New York. He follows the music he hears in the street noises and clamor of the city to an abandoned theater where children without parents and with musical abilities live under the watchful eye of ‘Wizard’, a man who knows what music is. It’s there that Evan has his first opportunity to express the music that lives and breathes inside of him, earning him a place among the rest of the children who play on the sidewalks and in the parks of New York for donations.
Wizard sees Evan’s potential for greatness and decides to do whatever he can to get Evan in the public where people can here him. Evan, now called August Rush, looks forward to this new adventure with excitement, until he realizes that while Wizard does want people to hear his talent, he wants the money it will bring more… and he doesn’t want August to ever find his parents. And that is one dream that August will never give up.
There are a few elements in the story that require a suspension of disbelief, but they don’t detract from the story. After all, doesn’t music often ask us to suspend our disbelief and for even just a moment believe that we can fly, become heroes, that all is right with the world and we haven’t a trouble or care in the world?
‘August Rush’ celebrates the beauty of music, tells a story of hope and determination and begs us to believe that family ties can never really be broken and will bring us together again if we let them. With a beautiful story and a powerful, breathtaking score, it reminds us that the music is all around us, all you have to do is listen.