August Rush

The film is about a young musical prodigy, Evan Taylor, aka August Rush (Freddie Highmore) who uses his gift as a clue to finding his birth parents: an Irish guitar player who performs in a band called Louis Connelly (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) and a brilliant cellist called Lyla Novacek (Keri Russell). They both met one night and fell in love imideatly, but soon they were torn apart. The kid ends up performing in the streets with a mysterious stranger who calls himself "Wizard" (Robin Williams).

What I loved the most about this film were the fairy tale elements that makes it suitable for children, even though they might not understand the very core of the story. It is incredibly moving - to tears - and tells a lovely story with excellent performances and images. It is visually beautiful, impecably edited, both sounds and images. You can really see (and hear) through the characters' perspective, which makes it even more emotional. It is amazingly casted, every actor plays its character beautifully, but, for me, Freddie Highmore was the biggest breakthrough, even though we had already seen him in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Finding Neverland, in this film, you really take notice of him. Rhys Meyers's performance it's outstanding, mostly because we had never seen him in a sweet, loving character like Louis Connelly. Same with Robin Williams, who's known for characters more lovable and here we see a darker performance (still he manages to be loved by the spectators). Keri Russell is adorable and has such good chemistry with Rhys Meyers. Bottomline, this is trully a symphony of a film. You'll enjoy it, your children will enjoy it, and you will walk out of the theater knowing that, for once, your ticket money was well spent.