What Do The Critics Say?

"Sheridan's magical movie blooms at the crossroads of music, melodrama, and love; leaving the theatre, you'll find yourself happily immersed in the sounds of the streets." Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat SPIRITUALITY AND PRACTICE "If you appreciate a well-crafted fantasy tale that is a showcase for its young star and its great music, then you might just like August Rush." Robin Clifford REELING REVIEWS "As a real-life story, this would be preposterous. But as a fantasy ode to the spiritual qualities of music in our lives, it works beautifully." Linda Cook QUAD CITY TIMES "I dislike sentimentality where it doesn't belong, but there's something brave about the way August Rush declares itself and goes all the way with coincidence, melodrama and skillful tear-jerking." Roger Ebert CHICAGO SUN-TIMES "One of the cinematic blessings is this heart-warming, life-affirming fantasy from first-time director Kirsten Sheridan (Jim Sheridan’s daughter). Heart-warming, life-affirming fantasy - a magical, musical adventure, geared for families." Susan Granger SUSANGRANGER.COM

"Despite its flaws, the music is the ultimate star of this film and Freddy Highmore is a highlight. He plays the role with a truthfulness and innocence that hasn't been matched by a child actor in some time. The score by Mark Mancina is uplifting and fun." Adam Fendleman HOLLYWOODCHICAGO "Those who are willing to open their hearts to this urban fairy tale will find its pleasures, as long as they they don't think about it too hard." Nell MinnoW BELIEFNET "A poetic joy: if you can suspend your subscription to the definition of film Hollywood has groomed us to accept, you'll love this film." David Foucher EDGE BOSTON "May be the best film I have seen in 2007. August will have you Rushing to theatres to witness his musical masterpiece." Vince Koehler ENTERTAINMENT SPECTRUM "Russell and Rhys Meyers make an attractive and believable would-be couple, and Highmore may actually be the best child actor working today." Loey Locker KANSAS CITY STAR

The Inside Story "This is a story about a child who hears the world differently," offers Emmy award winning producer Richard Barton Lewis, who nurtured "August Rush" from its inception through every aspect of development and production. "He doesn't fit in where life initially places him. His one desire is to be with his parents, and no matter how much people try to convince him that they aren't alive or, worse, that they don't care, he never gives up believing. No one can talk him out of it. He waits for them for eleven years and then decides it's time to go look for them himself." What Evan Taylor doesn't know is that his parents are just as lost as he is. "August's ability to channel music from nature has its origin with his mother, Lyla, a concert cellist, and his father, Louis, a singer, songwriter and guitarist: both of them talented musicians but, more importantly, both similarly attuned to the music that's all around us but few of us hear. It's what brought them together. These are two people who have always heard the world in a special, specific way and that has left them a bit on the periphery with other people. When they realize that they each feel the same way, it's an absolutely magical and immediate connection that breaks them out of their loneliness for that one night and that’s when August is created," director Kirsten Sheridan explained. The director added that she sees "August Rush’ as "a love story with three people." "Like so many love stories, things don't run smoothly. Lyla and Louis are quickly torn apart and remain apart for years," notes Lewis. "Sadly, upon losing each other, they also lose their passion for music." "I liked the story’s ensemble nature," notes Jonathan Rhys Meyers, who stars as the impulsive, creative Louis. "They're all parts of the same puzzle, these three people separated by circumstance, who need each other to feel fully alive." Keri Russell, who stars as Louis's precious Lyla, says, "I love stories in which people are trying to find where they belong, to find their true home and the people they’re meant to be with. It's easy to make a poor choice and spend a decade living the wrong kind of life and not as easy to correct that kind of error, but it's possible. I believe what this story is saying: not just with August, but with each of the characters; is that it's only when you open yourself up to emotion and loss and become vulnerable that you find your way." Sheridan agrees. "I'm constantly reminded of how the most profound ideas are often the most basic. What I fell in love with was the central story of this family finding each other through their shared passion for music and how it juxtaposes life's two extremes: love and loss." "The thread running throughout all of it is the music," says Lewis ("Backdraft" & "Eulogy"). "It's integral to the story, like a character unto itself." Freddie Highmore described how this musical influence is a theme established at the very beginning and helps to enhance and propel the story. "Even in the orphanage, August feels connected to the parents he’s never met because he believes they hear the same music he hears in everything around him." Music as communication is a concept August knows instinctively but it’s the mysterious man Maxwell Wallace, known as Wizard and played by five time American Comedy Award winner Robin Williams (1987, '88, '89, '90 & '94) who first articulates it for him. Williams refers to his character as "a kind of rock and roll Fagan". Wizard serves as August’s first mentor. "You know what music is?" he asks the boy. "A harmonic connection between all living beings." Citing the truth is greater than fiction principle, Saturn Award winning screenwriter James V Hart ("Dracula" 1993) notes that even the seemingly fantastic elements of August’s musical prowess could be drawn from reality. "One amazing aspect of this story is that while we were prepping the script for production a child prodigy enrolled at Juilliard; Jay Greenberg, age twelve, who had already composed five symphonies. In an interview he stated that he doesn’t know where the music comes from, but that when it arrives in his head it’s completely composed. He sounded like our August." "I’ve always been attracted to stories that hint at magic. It’s very seductive because we all want to believe," says two time Giffoni Film Festival Award winning screenwriter Nick Castle. "And music is the most mysterious of arts; it seems to bypass the conscious mind and go to some very primal place in us. It’s the perfect medium for the magic in this kind of film." So how did young Freddie Highmore get the role as 'August Rush' in this delightful, magical film? Lewis revealed it was the park bench scene with four time People's Choice Award winner Johnny Depp (2005, '06, '07 & '08) in "Finding Neverland" that struck exactly the right emotional tone he needed for August. Securing the young actor proved more difficult, as Highmore’s mother had planned for her son to take a break from his film schedule at the time. "But when I described the story to her, she agreed to read the script, and when she and Freddie read the script they loved it." "August is not quite normal in his interactions with people," Highmore observes. "He tends to stare. Kirsten and I decided it’s as though he never learned the social convention to politely look away, so he stares the way a much younger child might do and in the same calm, open and fearless way." Highmore, who could play clarinet and read music prior to the project, enjoyed the guitar work particularly and declares conducting the most challenging of his on-set lessons. "There’s a seven minute symphony I have to conduct, and it’s amazing how involved that can be: you have to know the exact place to bring in the oboe on the left or the violas on the right and time the beats so you don’t mess up. Of course, if I did it wrong it wouldn’t have mattered that much; it only had to look real, but I wanted to get it as near to perfect as possible." It was a lot different for Golden Globe winner Keri Russell ("Felicity") who was cast as cellist Novacek. Russell "learned to play cello from a dead stop," says Lewis. "She didn’t play a note when we started this movie, and we gave her arguably three of the most intricate pieces ever written from Tchaikovsky, Elgar and Bach." Russell, the star of the late Adrienne Shelly's critically acclaimed "Waitress", describes the process of learning the solos as, "going from 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star' to Bach in twelve weeks. We broke the pieces down and slowed them so I could learn the correct bowing positions and then gradually brought them up to speed. Fortunately, they’re not relying on me for the sound, but it took intense practice just to achieve that visual credibility." "Keri has that classical, ethereal beauty and the grace and poise you would expect to see on stage at Carnegie Hall, but she delivers the rest of it, too," says Sheridan. "Lyla begins as a kind of china doll and ends up a fighter." Golden Globe winner Jonathan Rhys Meyers (TV'S "Elvis"), who played football coach Joe in Gurinder Chadha's hugely popular "Bend It Like Beckham" (2002) says, "Working with Freddie took me back for an instant to that sense of fearlessness and freshness I felt when I was his age and it was delicious." Lewis says when it came to the character 'Wizard' he "wanted him to be unpredictable, scary and wonderful. You never know what you’re going to get with him, and that’s what makes him such a compelling character." For the role of Wizard, Lewis turned to Oscar winner Robin Williams ("Good Will Hunting"), with whom he had recently worked on "House of D". He notes that Williams has the ability to "bring lightness to roles that are not especially light and vice versa. He conveys the complexity of the roles so deftly." "He was a promising musician himself, then fell through the cracks. I imagine years of abuse or neglect, then he just lost it, hit the wall, or maybe he just didn’t have enough talent. Now he finds himself working with these kids, trying to impart to them his understanding of music, but not many of them get it until August comes along," Williams offers. Highmore jokes that casting Williams meant he "wasn’t the only kid on the set. Robin became Wizard and I became August. It was fantastic. He’s so good at it; I just tried to follow his lead." 2005 Satellite Award winner Terrence Howard ("Hustle & Flow") was cast as social worker Richard Jeffries. "A good portion of my roles have been tough, disreputable characters so it was nice to play someone who is closer to my heart. I know that a missing child is a reality for many people, and I feel for them as a father myself. It’s not hard to imagine the things that could happen," says the man who played Cameron Thayer in 2006's Best Motion Picture of the Year, "Crash". While "August Rush" evokes a certain fairytale quality, it is grounded in reality. It's a balance the filmmakers sought to maintain as Sheridan attests, "If everything is magical you won’t be able to see the one part of it that is truly meant to be transcendent; it would be like putting a color on top of another color. We wanted the contrast of the real world." As producer Richard Barton Lewis, who worked with Jeff Bridges, Tommy Lee Jones and Forest Whitaker on 1994's "Blown Away" points out, "There are no special effects in this movie. The magic is in the performances, the characters and the discoveries they make along the way." As August Rush says: "The music is all around us. All you have to do is listen." Synopsis

A charismatic Irish rock guitarist and a young classical cellist have a chance encounter one glorious night above New York's Washington Square. Brilliant cellist Lyla Novacek has just finish performing a concert in New York City. She goes out for a night on the town with her girlfriend and ends up at a party near New Yorks Washington Square. Here she meets Irish guitar player Louis Connelly. They share the love of music and end up falling in love and bonding together that night. Lyla must rush back to the hotel where her father Thomas is waiting for her. She's promised to meet Louis in Washington Square, but her father forces her to go to her next concert. Lyla's career comes first. They are like two ships that pass in the night, never to see each other again, except for the fact that Lyla is now expecting their child. Tragically, Lyla is involved in a vehicle accident and the unborn child she is carrying is lost. Eleven years have passed. Lyla's father, on his death bed, reveals what really happened on that fateful night.

The Verdict "If you're in the mood for a quality, feel-good film, then this is it. Great cast, wonderful music, a lovely story and a fab finish makes this the ideal film for a family outing at your local cinema complex. Once again, as he did in "Finding Neverland" and "Five Children and It", 2005 Empire Award winner Freddie Highmore (who celebrated his fourteenth birthday during the first week of filming) gives a brilliant, heartfelt performance. There's a lot of joy in "August Rush" even if it does at times seem a little contrived and aimed at evocking a calculated emotional response from its audiences. However, it doesn't diminish the quality of the film in any way, what so ever. This is one film I'm sure audiences will come away from 'feeling good' about and feeling they've gotten their monies worth out of. One of the best aspects of "August Rush" is that Robin Williams is held in check and doesn't give one of his 'loose cannon' performances. Experience the joy of reunion and the wonderful music captured in this delightful film. Give in to the fantasy and you'll be rewarded! Highly recommended. 4 STARS." Cast & Crew Bytes "AUGUST RUSH" stars .......
Freddie Highmore ["Finding Neverland", "Arthur and the Invisibles" and "The Golden Compass"]; Keri Russell ["The Upside Of Anger", "Mission: Impossible III" and "Waitress"]; Jonathan Rhys Meyers ["Michael Collins", "Bend It Like Beckham" and "Match Point"]; William Sadler ["The Green Mile", "The Battle of Shaker Heights" and "The Mist"]; Robin Williams ["Insomnia", "Man Of The Year" and "Night at the Museum"] and Terrence Howard ["Crash", "Hustle & Flow", "Four Brothers" and "The Perfect Holiday"] as Richard Jeffries.
"AUGUST RUSH" was .......
directed by Kirsten Sheridan ["The Bench", "Walking Into Mirrors" and "Disco Pigs"]; screenplay by Nick Castle ["The Last Starfighter", "Dennis The Menace" and "Major Payne"] and James V Hart ["Contact", "Tuck Everlasting", "Sahara" and "The Last Mimzy"]; art direction by Mario Ventenilla ["The Guru", "Romance & Cigarettes" and "The Family Stone"]; costume design by Frank L Fleming ["Monster's Ball", "Stranger Than Fiction" and "The Kite Runner"]; production design by Michael Shaw ["Boys Don't Cry", "You Can Count on Me" and "The Night Listener"]; edited by William Steinkamp ["Out of Africa", "Don't Say A Word" and "Runaway Jury"]; cinematography by John Mathieson ["Gladiator", "K-PAX", "The Phantom Of The Opera" and "Kingdom of Heaven"]; original music by Mark Mancina ["Training Day", "Brother Bear", "The Haunted Mansion" and "Shooter"]. Who's Who?

Freddie Highmore Keri Russell Jonathan Rhys Meyers Terrence Howard Robin Williams William Sadler Marian Seldes Leon Thomas III Mykelti Williamson Aaron Staton Alex O'Loughlin Jamia Simone Nash Ronald Guttman Bonnie McKee Michael Drayer Jamie O'Keefe Becki Newton Tyler McGuckin Megan Gallagher Anais Martinez Bilal Bishop

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Evan 'August Rush' Taylor Lyla Louis Connelly Richard Jeffries Maxwell 'Wizard' Wallace Thomas Novacek The Dean Arthur Reverend James Nick Marshall Hope Professor Lizzy Mannix Steve Jennifer Peter Megan Backbeat Roller Bull

Run Time 114 minutes Rated PG [AUST] Copyright ©2008 - MagnaPacific Films - All Rights Reserved ©2008 All Rights Reserved - The Movie Pages & Impact Internet Services - Protected by Australian, International, Copyright & Trademark Laws.