August Rush: A Dime a Dozen

Although I know I’ll be torn apart by fans of Robin Williams, music aficionados, and bad movie lovers, I feel like I should write this. First of all, I want to explain that August Rush made me feel something I have never ever felt in a movie: an extremely bitter taste in my mouth, which fostered instant resentment. Not only this, but I felt like I had to (both verbally and by the use of mass media) tell others. Maybe this had something to do with the resounding applause I heard echo through the cinema at the unmoving conclusion to an even more unmoving film. I still wonder that, due to my sitting in the front row, I must have missed someone land a front flip through a hoop of fire while juggling 30 live kittens in the middle of the theater that induced the accumulated claps of appreciation. Due to those claps, I was further moved to share with others my feelings about this ridiculous movie.
Dragging, contrived, and copiously laden with coincidences, this movie seems to appeal to America’s lowest common denominator. Not morally, but intellectually, and in regards to peoples’ expectations of what they want to hand over $8.50 or $5.00 for. As one critic so plainly put it, “everything falls neatly into place, thanks to a script that needs about 128 coincidences to retain its forward momentum” (bold added). It’s interesting that people are willing to throw logic, real emotion, and quality out the window in viewing movies, as evidenced heavily during this one. This, I suspect, is not what Samuel Taylor Coleridge meant when he coined the phrase, “a willing suspension of disbelief.”
In 2001, Peter Chelsom directed a similar movie, Serendipity, which draws many of its plot roots from the same base—coincidence and, simply, serendipity. However, Serendipity had some redeeming value, and it should teach a lesson to Kirsten Sheriden on how to make a movie in this genre: not only is good acting necessary, but also a firm plot, believable coincidences, and cinematography. Another critic said, “Even the final few moments, which should have us choking up, seemed hurried and shot from the wrong angles.”
I was emotionally moved, at times, and looking back on those times, I realized that it was because of one fact: the music. The music was the one saving grace of this movie, followed closely only by the unpredictability of Robin Williams being the antagonist. The music was well performed, well arranged, and well delivered, however NOT BY THE ACTORS. I don’t understand how people make that mistake. As much as you want to believe it (and I don’t), that child is NOT playing those songs.
I believe my point boils down to the fact that young Americans as a majority are uninformed, unintelligent, and ignorant when it comes to quality of entertainment. I do not believe that I am more intelligent or less ignorant in my own right, but this comes now in the form of a plea, a plea that young Americans will look for what is worthwhile in a movie, and not feed whatever slop is thrown their way.


readers are urged to make comments for or against my argument. I want to know how others feel.