August Rush

I watched it with a single other person in the theatre yesterday, just as they opened. I was crying long before it reached the middle. (Hormones.)

I liked the openness of Keri Russell's face, especially her eyes. I've never watched Felicity, but this movie made me a fan. Jonathan Rhys Meyers is supposed to be hot, but he didn't really register, except when he sang, and when he was with her. I liked the picture of the two of them the morning after. And I liked that she had to learn to play the cello for this movie, and he sang his own songs--not terribly well but well enough. But of course, the star of the show is Freddie Highmore. Quite a kid.

I liked how it began and how it ended, but the truth is the story is pretty flimsy. What carries the movie along are the people in it, their yearning, and of course, their music, like beads threaded on a single necklace, and connects them into something beautiful.

As far as singing goes, Leon G. Thomas III stole the show.

And long after I've walked out of the theatre, my ears were still attuned. That's how you know the movie succeeds.