August Rush Reviews

August Rush is the story of a musically-talented boy who was abandoned at birth by his mother. The film follows his search to find his birth parents.

Many reviewers criticized the film for being contrived, overly sentimental, and a completely implausible story to be based in New York City. Rotten Tomatoes, the review aggregator, showed that 38% of the reviews by critics were positive. But fans have supported the whimsical qualities of the movie and that it shows how music can connect and inspire people of all ages.

Roger Ebert and The Hollywood Reporter gave the film positive reviews.

• USA Today: August Rush Review (3/4)

• • "August Rush is a film that is all about the transformative emotional power of music. It's wise to ignore the predictable plot turns and the lack of believability in this urban fantasy, and let yourself slip under the spell of its intensely passionate tribute to the world of melody and harmony."

• Metromix Chicago: August Rush Review (2/4)

• • "Your take on this movie may depend on your tolerance for treacle....It's an unabashed feel-good weeper, and those eager for that type of fare might as well settle for this one."

• Seattlepi.com: August Rush Review (Grade: B-)

• • "In the end, this could be the year's most sharply defined love-it-or-hate-it movie."

• RogerEbert.com: August Rush Review (3/4)

• • "Here is a movie drenched in sentimentality, but it's supposed to be. 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. I think more sensitive younger viewers, in particular, might really like it."

• The Hollywood Reporter: August Rush Review

• • "Clearly, the film does not work on any realistic level. August is driven by its music. From gospel and rock to classical and symphonic, music carries its characters and story ever forward to their destiny."

• New York Post: August Rush Review (1.5/4)

• • "This is the sort of movie that requires you not only to suspend disbelief, but to check your sanity at the ticket counter."

• Washington Post: August Rush Review

• • "Intended as a fuzzy family fable, August plays more to the gag reflex than to the heart..."

• San Francisco Chronicle: August Rush Review

• • "Music is everywhere, 'in the wind, in the air, in the light,' insists 11-year-old Evan (Freddie Highmore). 'All you have to do is listen.' That is just one of the convictions that the child holds in the inane musical melodrama August Rush."