The main character, Evan Taylor, can hear music in everything around him. He is being raised in an orphanage with no contact with his parents, although he insists that he can “hear” them.
Evan believes that the music that he can hear in everything from the wind in wheat fields to the buzzing of electrical lines, is some kind of message from his parents, whom he wants desperately to find. During his stay at the orphanage, Evan meets a counselor, who gives a name card to him, introducing himself as a New York child service department member. Through a series of flashbacks, we learn that his parents were a famous concert cellist named Lyla Novacek, and Louis Connelly, an Irish guitarist and lead singer from a rock band.
They met and fell in love in one night, but through a series of events, were separated. Late in her pregnancy, Lyla was hit by a car and was told by her father that her child didn’t survive. Lyla and Louis both had trouble concentrating on playing music and were miserable without each other. During one night, he hears what he considers “the ultimate call. ” He follows the sound with the name card from the man but eventually falls asleep. Evan is picked up by a trucker, is taken to New York, and the trucker called the number on the card.
He is told to stay in a certain spot but after the wind blows the card into a vent, he wanders around the city and finds a black boy named Arthur playing the guitar. Attracted to the music, he follows Arthur and falls in with a group of street kids, all musicians of some kind, who are being cared for by “Wizard”. Wizard is a bucker who sees the children as “investments”. Evan gets access to a guitar and begins to play music for the first time. He turns out to be a child prodigy, and while in search of a better name, Wizard gives him the name August Rush, both as an alias and a stage name after seeing a commercial on a random truck driving by.
Lyla’s father confesses to her on his deathbed that her son lived after all and that he forged her signature on the papers giving the child up to the state. Lyla goes to New York City in search of her son. Meanwhile, Evan’s father Louis has also begun to play again, and while trying to trace Lyla, has also ended up back in New York City, where they had originally met. Meanwhile, Evan’s friend in the social services is seeking him. He becomes suspicious of Wizard and has the police follow him. They raid the condemned theater in which Wizard and the kids live.
Having run away, Evan hears a choir singing in a church and meets a little girl who sings in the choir. She teaches him how to read and write music, and he begins to play the pipe organ with consummate skill. The pastor of the church has Evan enrolled in Juilliard, where he does brilliantly, eventually writing a magnificent piece called “August’s Rhapsody”, which is going to be performed in the open in New York City’s Central Park with the New York Philharmonic. By coincidence, Lyla Novacek, who has been repeatedly nudged by her friend to play with the philharmonic, agrees to do so.
But Wizard wants to make money from Evan, and having found him again through the concert advertisements, he forces Evan to leave Juilliard and the organizers of the concert by implying that he will tell everyone Evan’s real name if he doesn’t, in which Evan will be sent back to the orphanage. Evan reluctantly goes with him. While busking under Wizard’s supervision, Evan meets a fellow guitarist, who is, unbeknownst to both of them, his father Louis Connelly. Evan says that he has a big concert coming up, but that he can’t go.
Louis tells him that if he had a big concert, he wouldn’t miss it for anything. Evan decides that he must go to the concert. But first, he has to get away from Wizard. On the day of the concert, Evan is in the subway station with Wizard and Arthur, counting money. Evan wants to leave and runs away from Wizard (who is stunned by a blow to the head by Arthur with a guitar) and arrives to the concert just in time to conduct his piece just as Lyla is leaving the performance, who coincidentally is attracted to the music and turns around to approach the stage.
At the same time, Louis and his band are in the area, driving in a car. He likes the music he is hearing, and wonders what it is. He sees Lyla’s name on a lamp post advertisement of the performance and runs out of the car towards the music. After approaching the stage, he notices the conductor was the kid he met at the park. And, again, coincidentally he finds Lyla right next to him, listening to the music. As Lyla goes closer to the stadium, Louis follows and stands right next to her, holding her hand. In surprise, Lyla looks to her side and sees Louis.
And as the piece ends, Evan turns to the crowd, and the three recognize each other. The movie ends as it fades out of the concert at Central Park, with Evan saying in the background, “The music is all around us. All you have to do is listen. ” F. Ending of the Story Evan gets accepted in Juilliard, where it was discovered that he’s a musical genius. Wizard, a man who made money out of the talent of Evan and the other kids, forced him to leave Juilliard and threatened him that he will tell the people Evan’s true identity if he will not go with him.
Meanwhile, Evan’s birth parents, Louis and Lyla, get to New York for different reasons. In the end, their paths crossed while August is conducting his own work in the Concert in the Park, where his parents meet and realize that Evan is their son. When Louis arrived at the park, he found himself standing next to Lyla. The spark of their love bursted into flames again. Both of them realized that Evan is their son. Meanwhile, when Evan saw the two of them, his face lit and he smiled. We can assume from here that all three of them found one nother at last and that they lived as one family in the end.
Reaction about the Film I really enjoyed this heartwarming film about love, fate, and determination amidst life’s worst circumstances. It is mainly about an orphaned musical prodigy who used his talent to find his biological parents. The scenes of this film consist of fantasy elements but the plot still managed to connect it with true-to-life human situations. The story inspires us to never give up on our aspirations no matter how hard and impossible it may seem to be.
The musical elements involved in the story contributed in the over-all appeal of this film especially because I am also fond of playing the guitar just like Evan. I find the ending unsatisfying because it does not tell the follow-up of the story regarding their family on whether their family became complete and happy in the end, if Lyla and Louis got together again, or if their paths lost direction after the event. Nonetheless, I find the story very entertaining, exciting, and heartwarming.
Recommendation
I highly recommend this film to my friends because this film speaks of love for one’s family and courage to face life’s challenges. It is full of inspiring lessons about the importance of one’s own family and true identity. It also made me feel lucky because I did not experience the things that Evan faced in his young life because my family has always been here with me. It is also very amusing because of the musical elements present throughout the entire film.
