August Rush vs. Once
It's been movie mania at our house lately. With no kids here, we can actually put in a DVD and watch the whole thing!
We watched Charlie Wilson's War, with Tom Hanks. A decent rental, but it's one of those "message movies". You know, the ones produced by left wingers whose message is usually America Sucks. In this movie, the Americans rise to the occasion in the 80's to help Afghanistan fight off the Soviets. But in the end, as usual, the U.S.A. is painted the dirtball for not building schools after helping them win. (Should we have helped? Sure. And one could say we should build schools in every other corner of the universe as well. But we can't do everything. Nor should we.) So the whole story about helping to defeat the Soviets was subverted at the end, where the evil congressmen (Republicans no doubt. The Democrats are never the unsympathetic ones) refuse to give money to build some schools in Afghanistan, the subtext being it's our fault the Taliban moved in.
I might also say the reason this is a decent rental is because of Tom Hanks, who is incapable of not being likeable, and Philip Seymour Hoffman, who is...well, probably the greatest actor we've seen in a generation or two. Oh yeah. The movie also starred Julia Roberts, who should really stick to romantic comedies. Even though she's from the south, she could not pull off the southern accent for this role.
But let's get to the point of this post. Last night we watched Once, today we watched August Rush. These are both movies about music and the tragedies and redemptions of love. However, in my humble opinion, Once blew August Rush right out of the water.
Once is a lovely story about a street musician in Ireland who is heartsick over a failed romance. He meets a young woman as he's performing one day, someone who's had her own share of heartbreak. They decide to cut a CD together. The sing a lot of great songs. They each decide to pursue the loves they had lost. That's it. My husband, after it was over, said, "huh?" He thought it was a little thin on plot. There were no explosions or car chases. I, on the other hand, thought it was a beautifully rendered story of heartbreak, love and redemption. Go rent it. Right now.
August Rush, on the other hand was...how can I put this.....just stupid. It starred Keri Russell, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Freddie Highmore. Don't want to spoil the suspense, so I'll just say the story is about an orphan searching for his parents through music. The kid is a prodigy. He takes off from the orphanage to New York City, where all kinds of frankly not believable plot twists take him here and there, while he writes a symphony (the kid is supposed to be 11), enrolls in Julliard, and learns to play various instruments in a matter of minutes, even though he has supposedly never seen a written note on a page. The parents struck me as total idiots who wander around and let things happen to them. They're pining away for each other for over 10 years and neither one ever thinks "Gee maybe I should pick up the phone and call."
I've seen Russell in a few movies. She's appealing, but I'm starting to think she has poor taste in roles. She received lots of praise for her performance in "Waitress" but after seeing that film I'm convinced it only got a lot of press because the filmmaker was brutally murdered before the movie opened.
Don't think I've seen Rhys Meyers before but, how you say...he's got it goin' on girlfriend! He reminded me of Joachim Phoenix. Very sexy, brooding, with a great voice.
Loved Freddie Highmore in Finding Neverland. Not that he was bad in this, he just had lame material to work with.
So there you have it, from a watcher of movies with no particular expertise but strong opinions nonetheless. It won't kill you to see August Rush but it's a light (dumb) little fairy tale with appealing actors. But Once... I'm going to buy the soundtrack.
We watched Charlie Wilson's War, with Tom Hanks. A decent rental, but it's one of those "message movies". You know, the ones produced by left wingers whose message is usually America Sucks. In this movie, the Americans rise to the occasion in the 80's to help Afghanistan fight off the Soviets. But in the end, as usual, the U.S.A. is painted the dirtball for not building schools after helping them win. (Should we have helped? Sure. And one could say we should build schools in every other corner of the universe as well. But we can't do everything. Nor should we.) So the whole story about helping to defeat the Soviets was subverted at the end, where the evil congressmen (Republicans no doubt. The Democrats are never the unsympathetic ones) refuse to give money to build some schools in Afghanistan, the subtext being it's our fault the Taliban moved in.
I might also say the reason this is a decent rental is because of Tom Hanks, who is incapable of not being likeable, and Philip Seymour Hoffman, who is...well, probably the greatest actor we've seen in a generation or two. Oh yeah. The movie also starred Julia Roberts, who should really stick to romantic comedies. Even though she's from the south, she could not pull off the southern accent for this role.
But let's get to the point of this post. Last night we watched Once, today we watched August Rush. These are both movies about music and the tragedies and redemptions of love. However, in my humble opinion, Once blew August Rush right out of the water.
Once is a lovely story about a street musician in Ireland who is heartsick over a failed romance. He meets a young woman as he's performing one day, someone who's had her own share of heartbreak. They decide to cut a CD together. The sing a lot of great songs. They each decide to pursue the loves they had lost. That's it. My husband, after it was over, said, "huh?" He thought it was a little thin on plot. There were no explosions or car chases. I, on the other hand, thought it was a beautifully rendered story of heartbreak, love and redemption. Go rent it. Right now.
August Rush, on the other hand was...how can I put this.....just stupid. It starred Keri Russell, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Freddie Highmore. Don't want to spoil the suspense, so I'll just say the story is about an orphan searching for his parents through music. The kid is a prodigy. He takes off from the orphanage to New York City, where all kinds of frankly not believable plot twists take him here and there, while he writes a symphony (the kid is supposed to be 11), enrolls in Julliard, and learns to play various instruments in a matter of minutes, even though he has supposedly never seen a written note on a page. The parents struck me as total idiots who wander around and let things happen to them. They're pining away for each other for over 10 years and neither one ever thinks "Gee maybe I should pick up the phone and call."
I've seen Russell in a few movies. She's appealing, but I'm starting to think she has poor taste in roles. She received lots of praise for her performance in "Waitress" but after seeing that film I'm convinced it only got a lot of press because the filmmaker was brutally murdered before the movie opened.
Don't think I've seen Rhys Meyers before but, how you say...he's got it goin' on girlfriend! He reminded me of Joachim Phoenix. Very sexy, brooding, with a great voice.
Loved Freddie Highmore in Finding Neverland. Not that he was bad in this, he just had lame material to work with.
So there you have it, from a watcher of movies with no particular expertise but strong opinions nonetheless. It won't kill you to see August Rush but it's a light (dumb) little fairy tale with appealing actors. But Once... I'm going to buy the soundtrack.
posted by calabresewoman | 5:38 PM
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