text:
August Rush
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (June 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
August Rush
Theatrical release poster
Directed by
Kirsten Sheridan
Produced by
Richard Barton Lewis
Screenplay by
Nick Castle
James V. Hart
Story by
Paul Castro
Nick Castle
Starring
Freddie Highmore
Keri Russell
Jonathan Rhys Meyers
Terrence Howard
Robin Williams
William Sadler
Music by
Mark Mancina
Cinematography
John Mathieson
Edited by
William Steinkamp
Production
company
Southpaw Entertainment
CJ Entertainment
Distributed by
Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date
November 21, 2007 (2007-11-21)
Running time
113 min.
Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
$25 million
Box office
$65.3 million
August Rush is a 2007 American drama film directed by Kirsten Sheridan and produced by Richard Barton Lewis. The screenplay is by Nick Castle and James V. Hart, with a story by Paul Castro and Castle. It involves an 11-year-old musical prodigy living in an orphanage who runs away to New York City. He begins to unravel the mystery of who he is, all while his mother is searching for him and his father is searching for her. The many different sounds and rhythms he hears throughout his journey culminates in a major instrumental composition which concludes the film ("August's Rhapsody").
Contents
[hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Music
4 Reception
4.1 Awards
5 Stage adaption
6 References
7 External links
Plot[edit]
In 1995, Lyla Novacek (Keri Russell) is a cellist studying at the Juilliard School and living under strict rule of her father (William Sadler). Louis Connelly (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) is the lead singer of "The Connelly Brothers", an Irish rock band. Lyla and Louis meet at a party after their respective concerts, and sleep together on the rooftop under a full moon, to the music of a street performer below. The day after, they separate in a hurry, and are unable to maintain contact as Lyla is ushered away by her father to Chicago. Later, Lyla realizes she is pregnant, and after an argument with her father, she is struck by a car. Due to the accident trauma, she gives birth prematurely, and her father secretly puts the baby boy up for adoption, allowing her to believe that her son died.
Eleven years later, Evan Taylor (Freddie Highmore) is living in a boys' orphanage outside New York City, where he meets Richard Jeffries (Terrence Howard), a social worker with Child and Family Services. Evan has the savant-like ability to hear music wherever he is, making him a bullying target for the older orphans. Convinced that his parents will find him, Evan runs away to New York City, "following the music" in the hope it will lead him to his family. He finds a boy named Arthur (Leon Thomas III) performing in Washington Square Park.
Louis, who left the band the same night Lyla was struck, now lives in San Francisco as an agent, while Lyla has also given up performing and now lives in Chicago teaching music. Louis reconnects with his brothers at a birthday party for one of the other band members, and after an argument and fistfight over breaking up the band, he decides to reconnect with the woman he now knows is Lyla. Lyla is called to her father's deathbed, where he confesses that her son is alive and in New York, since her father believed that he was only doing it for both him and his daughter and that her son could've destroyed her future. Lyla abandons her father to his fate and heads to New York to look for her son.
Evan follows Arthur to his home in a condemned theater, and is taken in by Maxwell "Wizard" Wallace (Robin Williams), a vagrant, arrogant, abusive and aggressive musician who teaches homeless children music and employs them as street performers. Evan tries playing Wizard's prize guitar, Roxanne (a Gibson J200), and is so good that Wizard gives him the guitar and his old spot in Washington Square Park (both of which were previously Arthur's). He gives Evan the stage name "August Rush" and tries to market him to clubs. Seeing the posters that Jeffries has posted for the runaway Evan, Wizard destroys all the ones he finds, hoping to keep Evan and his gift for his own gain.
On arriving at Lyla's apartment in Chicago, Louis talks to one of her neighbors, who mistakenly tells Louis she's on her honeymoon. Despairing, he ends up in New York, where he gets his band back together. After Jeffries meets Wizard and Arthur on the street and becomes suspicious, the police raid the derelict theatre in which Wizard and his "children" are living. Wizard helps Evan evade the police, telling him never to reveal his real name to anyone. Evan (now "August") takes refuge in a church where a young girl, Hope (Jamia Simone Nash), introduces him to the piano and written music. He picks up both skills so quickly that Hope gets the attention of the parish pastor (Mykelti Williamson), who takes August to Juilliard where he once again impresses the faculty. A rhapsody takes shape from August's notes and homework.
In New York, Lyla goes to Jeffries' office, and Jeffries identifies Evan as her son. While looking for him, she takes up the cello again and accepts an offer to perform with the Philharmonic at a series of concerts in Central Park. August is selected to perform the rhapsody he's been composing at the same concert. However, Wizard, who found out about August's performance by Arthur, interrupts the rehearsal and claims to be his father, and manages to pull August out of the school. On the day of the outdoor concert, August is back in his spot in Washington Square, while Wizard makes plans to smuggle him around the country to play. He meets Louis and, unaware of their blood relationship, they have an impromptu guitar duet. August tells him of his dilemma, and Louis encourages him to go. That evening, with help from Arthur, August escapes from Wizard through the subway and heads for his concert. Louis, after his own performance with his reunited band, sees Lyla's name on one of the concert banners and also heads for the park. Jeffries finds a misplaced flyer for "August Rush" with a picture, and realizing August is Evan, also heads for the concert.
August arrives in time to conduct his rhapsody, which attracts both Lyla and Louis to the audience, where they are reunited. August finishes his rhapsody and as he turns to discover his parents, he smiles knowing that he has been right all along.
Cast[edit]
Freddie Highmore as Evan Taylor / August Rush
Keri Russell as Lyla Novacek, Evan's mother
Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Louis Connelly, Evan's father
Robin Williams as Maxwell "Wizard" Wallace
Terrence Howard as Counselor Richard Jeffries
William Sadler as Thomas Novacek, Evan's maternal grandfather
Marian Seldes as Dean Alice MacNeil
Jamia Simone Nash as Hope
Mykelti Williamson as Reverend James
Leon Thomas III as Arthur
Alex O'Loughlin as Marshall Connelly, Evan's paternal uncle
Bonnie McKee as Lizzy
Timothy Mitchum as Joey
Becki Newton as Jennifer
Aaron Staton as Nick
Ronald Guttman as The Professor
Michael Drayer as Mannix
Dominic Colón as Policeman
Music[edit]
"Moondance"
Written by Van Morrison, Performed by Jonathan Rhys Meyers
"This Time"
Written by Chris Trapper, Performed by Jonathan Rhys Meyers
"Bari Improv"
Written by Mark Mancina and Kaki King, Performed by Kaki King
"Ritual Dance"
Written by Michael Hedges, Performed by Kaki King
"Raise It Up"
Written by Impact Repertory Theatre, Performed by Jamia Simone Nash and Impact Repertory Theatre
Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song
"Dueling Guitars"
Written by Heitor Pereira, Performed by Heitor Pereira and Doug Smith
"Someday"
Written by J. Stephens, Performed by John Legend
"King of the Earth"
Written and Performed by John Ondrasik
"God Bless the Child"
Written by Arthur Herzog, Jr. and Billie Holiday, Performed by Chris Botti and Paula Cole
"La Bamba"
Performed by Leon Thomas III
"August's Rhapsody"
Written by Mark Mancina
The final number with Lyla and Louis begins with Lyla playing the Adagio-Moderato from Edward Elgar's Cello Concerto in E Minor.
Except for "Dueling Guitars", all of August's guitar pieces were played by American guitarist-composer Kaki King. King's hands are used in close-ups for August Rush.
Composer Mark Mancina spent over a year and a half composing the score of August Rush. "The heart of the story is how we respond and connect through music. It's about this young boy who believes that he's going to find his parents through his music. That's what drives him."[1] The final theme of the movie was composed first. "That way I could take bits and pieces of the ending piece and relate it to the things that are happening in (August's) life. All of the themes are pieces of the puzzle, so at the end it means something because you've been subliminally hearing it throughout the film."[2] The score was recorded at the Todd-AO Scoring Stage and the Eastwood Scoring Stage at Warner Brothers.[3]
Reception[edit]
August Rush received mixed to negative reviews from film critics.[4][5] On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 37% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 110 reviews. The site's consensus reads: "Though featuring a talented cast, August Rush cannot overcome the flimsy direction and schmaltzy plot."[4] On Metacritic, the film had an average score of 38 out of 100, based on 27 critics, indicating "generally negative reviews".[5]
In a review by USA Today, Claudia Puig commented that "August Rush will not be for everyone, but it works if you surrender to its lilting and unabashedly sentimental tale of evocative music and visual poetry."[6] The Hollywood Reporter reviewed the film positively, writing "the story is about musicians and how music connects people, so the movie's score and songs, created by composers Mark Mancina and Hans Zimmer, give poetic whimsy to an implausible tale."[7]
Pam Grady of the San Francisco Chronicle called the film "an inane musical melodrama." Grady said "the entire story is ridiculous" and "Coincidences pile on, behavior and motivations defy logic, and the characters are so thinly drawn that most of the cast is at a loss."[8] Edward Douglas of comingsoon.net said it "does not take long for the movie to reveal itself as an extremely contrived and predictable movie that tries too hard to tug on the heartstrings."[9]
Roger Ebert gave the movie three stars, calling it "a movie drenched in sentimentality, but it's supposed to be. The movie also came to a very sudden end leaving it unfinished."[10]
A few critics suggested that the film is essentially a musical adaptation of Dickens' Oliver Twist.[11][12]
Awards[edit]
Despite the mixed reception, August Rush was praised for its music. The song "Raise It Up" was nominated for Best Original Song at the 80th Academy Awards, but lost to Once.
Stage adaption[edit]
This section needs to be updated. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (April 2017)
It was announced in November, 2014 that Mark Mancina and Glen Berger were bringing the film to Broadway.[13]
References[edit]
Jump up ^ Crisafulli, Chuck & Graff, Gary. "And The Best Original Song Oscar Nominees Are...". Billboard. Retrieved 2010-09-30.
Jump up ^ Crisafulli, Chuck. "After a year and a half, the 'August' pieces fit". Billboard. Retrieved April 25, 2012.
Jump up ^ Dan Goldwasser. "Scoring Session Photo Gallery from August Rush". ScoringSessions.com. Archived from the original on 24 February 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-29.
^ Jump up to: a b "August Rush — Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes. Archived from the original on 24 November 2007. Retrieved 2007-11-27.
^ Jump up to: a b "August Rush (2007): Reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on 25 November 2007. Retrieved 2007-11-27.
Jump up ^ Puig, Claudia (2007-11-23). "Lilting 'August Rush' is poetry in emotion". USA Today. Retrieved 2008-02-29.
Jump up ^ Honeycutt, Kirk (November 8, 2007). "August Rush". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on 2008-05-06. Retrieved 2008-02-29.
Jump up ^ Pam Grady (2007-11-21). "Review: Orphan has a song in his heart in 'August Rush'". San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on 24 November 2007. Retrieved 2007-11-27.
Jump up ^ "August Rush - Review Comments". Rotten Tomatoes. Archived from the original on 2013-09-27. Retrieved 2012-08-13.
Jump up ^ Roger Ebert (2007-11-21). "August Rush". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on 24 November 2007. Retrieved 2007-11-26.
Jump up ^ Smith, Sid (2007-11-21). "August Rush (Oliver Twist reset in N.Y.) — 2 stars". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on 12 December 2007. Retrieved 2007-12-15. Turn to the master, Charles Dickens, or better yet, update and recycle him. Such must have been the thinking behind August Rush, a thinly disguised retelling of Oliver Twist, transplanted to contemporary New York and sweetened by a theme of the healing magic of music.
Jump up ^ Covert, Colin (2007-11-20). "Movie review: Romanticism trumps reason in Rush". Star Tribune. Archived from the original on 10 December 2007. Retrieved 2007-12-15. If Charles Dickens were alive today, he might be writing projects like August Rush, the unabashedly sentimental tale of a plucky orphan lad who falls in with streetwise urchins as he seeks the family he ought to have. Come to think of it, Dickens did write that one, and called it Oliver Twist.
Jump up ^ http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/august-rush-bound-broadway-752366
External links[edit]
Wikiquote has quotations related to: August Rush
August Rush on IMDb
August Rush at Rotten Tomatoes
August Rush at Metacritic
August Rush at Box Office Mojo
August Rush at Allmovie
Scoring Session Photo Gallery at ScoringSessions.com
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=August_Rush&oldid=797016413"
Categories:
2007 films
English-language films
American musical drama films
American films
Films shot in New York City
Films shot in New Jersey
Films set in New York City
Films set in Chicago
Films set in San Francisco
Films set in 1995
Films set in 2006
Film scores by Mark Mancina
Hidden categories:
Wikipedia articles with plot summary needing attention from June 2013
All Wikipedia articles with plot summary needing attention
Wikipedia articles in need of updating from April 2017
All Wikipedia articles in need of updating
Navigation menu
Personal tools
Not logged in
Talk
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Namespaces
Article
Talk
Variants
Views
Read
Edit
View history
More
Search
Navigation
Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikipedia store
Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page
Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page
Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version
In other projects
Wikiquote
Languages
Afrikaans
العربية
Български
Català
Čeština
Deutsch
Español
Esperanto
فارسی
Français
한국어
Հայերեն
हिन्दी
Hrvatski
Bahasa Indonesia
Italiano
עברית
ಕನ್ನಡ
Lietuvių
Македонски
Nederlands
日本語
Polski
Português
Русский
Simple English
Svenska
Türkçe
Українська
Edit links
This page was last edited on 24 August 2017, at 12:45.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Cookie statement
Mobile view
Enable previews

values: mw-page-base noprint

values: mw-head-base noprint

values: firstHeading firstHeading en

values: siteSub noprint

values: jump-to-nav mw-jump

values: plainlinks metadata ambox ambox-style ambox-Plot

attrs: alt src width height class srcset data-file-width data-file-height

values:
/wiki/Richard_Barton_Lewis
mw-redirect
Richard Barton Lewis

values:
/wiki/Social_worker
mw-redirect
Social worker

values:
/wiki/Street_performer
mw-redirect
Street performer

values: Impact Repertory Theatre (page does not exist)

values:
/wiki/John_Ondrasik
mw-redirect
John Ondrasik

values: plainlinks metadata ambox ambox-content ambox-Update

values: -moz-column-width: 30em; -webkit-column-width: 30em; column-width: 30em; list-style-type: decimal;

values:
nofollow
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0426931/
external text

values: Category:Wikipedia articles with plot summary needing attention from June 2013

values: Category:All Wikipedia articles with plot summary needing attention

values: Category:Wikipedia articles in need of updating from April 2017

values: Category:All Wikipedia articles in need of updating

values: Discussion about edits from this IP address [ctrl-alt-n]

values: A list of edits made from this IP address [ctrl-alt-y]

values: You are encouraged to create an account and log in; however, it is not mandatory

values: You're encouraged to log in; however, it's not mandatory. [ctrl-alt-o]

values:
/wiki/August_Rush
View the content page [ctrl-alt-c]
c

values: Discussion about the content page [ctrl-alt-t]

values: p-namespaces navigation vectorTabs p-namespaces-label

values:
p-variants
navigation
vectorMenu emptyPortlet
p-variants-label

values: Past revisions of this page [ctrl-alt-h]

values: Find background information on current events

values:
/wiki/Special:Random
Load a random article [ctrl-alt-x]
x

values: portal navigation p-navigation p-navigation-label

values: Guidance on how to use and edit Wikipedia

values: About the project, what you can do, where to find things

values: A list of recent changes in the wiki [ctrl-alt-r]

values: portal navigation p-interaction p-interaction-label

values: List of all English Wikipedia pages containing links to this page [ctrl-alt-j]

values: Recent changes in pages linked from this page [ctrl-alt-k]

values:
/wiki/Wikipedia:File_Upload_Wizard
Upload files [ctrl-alt-u]
u

values: portal navigation p-wikibase-otherprojects p-wikibase-otherprojects-label

values: أوجست رش (فيلم) – Arabic

values: Огъст Ръш – Bulgarian

values: آگوست راش – Persian

values: 어거스트 러쉬 – Korean

values: Ավգուստ Ռաշ – Armenian

values: अगस्त रश (फिल्म) – Hindi

values: La musica nel cuore - August Rush – Italian

values: ריקוד לאור ירח (סרט) – Hebrew

values: ಆಗಷ್ಟ್ ರಶ್ – Kannada

values: Muzika, suradusi mus (filmas) – Lithuanian

values: Август Раш – Macedonian

values: 奇跡のシンフォニー – Japanese

values: Август Раш – Russian

values: Август Раш – Ukrainian

values: mediawiki ltr sitedir-ltr mw-hide-empty-elt ns-0 ns-subject page-August_Rush rootpage-August_Rush skin-vector action-view