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Evan (Freddie Highmore of "Finding Neverland") is an orphan who says he "believes in music the way some people believe in fairy tales" and hears the world as a symphony of swishes, beeps and clangs as if it's "Stomp." While Evan is taken in and dubbed August Rush by an untrustworthy manager called the Wizard (Robin Williams, vacillating between creepy and kind), the young musical prodigy's parents (Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Keri Russell) slowly work their way back to each other, even though they haven't seen each other in a decade and never knew their son—the result of a one-night stand and put up for adoption by Evan's grandpa—was even alive.

Big question: Can this fable avoid feeling like a combination of "Oliver Twist" and "Serendipity"?

Catch it: Highmore's a delightful actor, frequently appearing as someone who makes the world seem beautiful even as it threatens to chew him up and spit him out. His everlasting optimism is what makes "August Rush" such crowd-pleasing proof that music, like DNA, flows through our veins.

Skip it: If you can't believe how Evan could possibly like music more than food. This statement will be particularly confusing to Phish fans.

Bottom line: Plot holes the size of cellos dampen the magic a bit, as do an array of silly coincidences that pile up like teddy bears on an assembly line gone berserk. But even though "August Rush" is sappy, it's the kind of sweetness that everyone needs once in awhile—like a big, honkin' ice cream sundae.

Bonus: Aspiring musicians can all learn a lesson from one of Evan's pals. Spellcheck your homemade sign before promoting yourself as "The musical jenius of Arthur."

mpais@tribune.com

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