The Cinema of the Four

August Rush

Allow me to quote the late, great John H. Watson at the beginning of this week’s cinema investigation, rather than at the end, as he described great-grandfather Holmes:

“All the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes were as unlike those of Holmes, the sleuth-hound, Holmes the relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was possible to conceive.”

That Sherlock Holmes is the one that I truly believe would have enjoyed the movie “August Rush,” if only because he could see a little of himself in young August. But is it a tale for which the world is yet prepared? Box office receipts would seem to say so, but let me present its case to you.

“August Rush,” to put it at its most basic terms, is about a boy who is spirited away from his parents at birth and must use music to find them. Even though most of the tale is set in New York City, it is that fantasy version of New York that we often see in movies, where the dangers that await a lost and wandering street urchin are not nearly so bad as they are in reality, and wonders occur there every day. If one strolls into the theater showing this film and expects anything resembling reality, one is apt to leave sorely disappointed. But if one is willing to go with “August Rush” on its own level, there is movie magic to be found here.

Freddie Highmore, one of those young actors who is suddenly everywhere, is perfect as the wide-eyed musical prodigy (to the point he’s almost an X-man with musical powers) who uses music almost like the Force from “Star Wars.” Keri Russell, fresh off her success in “Waitress,” and Jonathan Rhys Myers both straddle playing characters around age 20 and then the same folk a full decade older, with both the early innocence and the later dull sadness of lives unfulfilled. Then we come to Robin Williams as a musical Fagin, a sort of evil Obiwan Kenobi of the musical Force . . . the craziness of his early acting days gets a much darker use here, but not too dark.

There are flaws aplenty in “August Rush,” for those who want to find fault. Even the most avid fan of the film is apt to be a bit disappointed by the ending, which cuts the tale off immediately after the climax that the audience had waited so long for. It almost looked like the screenwriter and director decided that all the characters trying to explain their own situation to each other was just too bothersome to wrap up, and just decided to end it with an implied “and they all lived happily ever after” . . . which suits the fairy tale aspect of it.

But, as I said earlier, this is not a movie for cynics, but one for believers.

What Great-grandfather Sherlock might have said:
“It was easier to know it than to explain why I know it.”