Bad movies are a dime a dozen and most of them are just annoying. Much rarer, and more welcome, is the turkey that’s so over cooked it becomes perversely delicious. August Rush is one such film. Half an hour after it was over, I was still laughing. Problem is, it’s all supposed to be deadly serious and magically uplifting.
Kirsten Sheridan’s movie starts badly. Mopey little orphan Evan is one of those characters who can 'hear" the music of the world. When we meet him, he’s conducting a field of swaying grass.
11 years ago, his parents, a sensitive Irish rock pig and a willowy classical violinist, got it on and conceived the boy. The plot conspires ridiculously to keep them all apart, but their shared love of music brings them back into each other’s spheres. It sounds bad, but it’s much, much worse than that.
Freddie Highmore, whose career got off to a great start with Finding Neverland and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, is insufferable as the wet-eyed little moppet who becomes a musical prodigy and genius composer.
More predictably awful is Robin Williams who, sporting red hair and dressed like Bono, is a Fagin-like character named 'Wizard" who runs a New York City slave ring of busking kids. The film can’t decide whether he’s an inspired fellow traveler who soaks up the 'harmonics" of the universe, or if he’s a controlling freak.
Amid all the po-faced dialogue, sappy montages and utterly idiotic plot twists, it’s remarkable that Keri Russell, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Terrence Howard deliver half-decent performances. They should be congratulated simply for being able to keep straight faces.
I couldn’t.
Bad movie fans shouldn’t miss this one. If you loved Glitter and Battlefield Earth, August Rush is the one-star movie for you. August Rush is in cinemas now.
