August Rush: There's No Hurry

No standing ovations for the uplifting musical drama August Rush, starring Freddie Highmore as a homeless prodigy in search of his birth parents. But critics didn't all flee at intermission, either. "It’s an unabashed feel-good weeper," writes Sid Smith for the Chicago Tribune, "and those eager for that type of fare might as well settle for this one."

Featuring Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Keri Russell as musician parents who share a brief tryst before their resultant child is inadvertently abandoned, the film strains credulity pretty much from the opening credits. The New York Times' Stephen Holden also warns of its "potentially shock-inducing sugar content." William Arnold sums up the diversity for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, writing "In the end, this could be the year's most sharply defined love-it-or-hate-it movie." (More Freddie Highmore stories.)