August Rush

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 have a sexual encounter on the rooftop. The day after, they separate in a hurry, and are unable to maintain contact as Lyla is ushered away by her father to Chicago. Lyla is also aware that she is pregnant. Later, when in New York City, after an argument with her father over her unborn child, 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 under her name, allowing Lyla 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 have 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, 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 is 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. The police spot Arthur, but Evan draws their attention and runs; 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 has been composing at the same concert. However, Wizard 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.