BEFORE: Another film about a talented musician being lost in a big city - but this one looks to be a whole lot sappier.
THE PLOT: A drama with fairy tale elements, where an orphaned musical prodigy uses his gift as a clue to finding his birth parents.
AFTER: This one scored very high - but on the B.S. meter, unfortunately. Among this film's offenses are: (and this is by no means a complete list)
#1 - portraying New York City as some kind of musical/rhythmic wonderland, as seen by a lost boy. No pedophiles, no crackheads, no muggers - just beautiful sounds and rhythm. Give me a break.
#2 - the unlikely set of circumstances that lead to a child being born, and NEITHER of his parents are aware of him. This makes soap operas - sorry, daytime dramas - seem realistic by comparison. Somewhere a soap writer is saying, "Wow, that's pretty unbelievable..."
#3 - the movie is hardly original at all, the basic plot was stolen from Dickens' "Oliver Twist", with Robin Williams (last seen in "Being Human") in the "Fagin" role, in charge of a group of young street musicians (instead of pickpockets - OK, so that's one deviation from the source material.
#4 - having a central character who's such a musical prodigy that the first time he touches a guitar he not only knows how to play, he's got an innovative percussive playing technique, one that would take years to develop, and he's superior in talent to any guitarist you can name.
The character later learns the piano and organ in mere moments, and also picks up complex musical notation, after 2 minutes of instruction from a small girl. Simply not possible.
#5 - unlikely coincidences do occur, even in New York City (any time you attend a crowded concert, chances are you might know someone in the crowd) and some people do find lost family members after years apart - but this movie is just one impossible coincidence after another. You've got to multiply the odds against each coincidence happening to really get a sense how cumulatively unlikely this all is.
(Yes, there is a technique called "parallel editing" - wherein we're shown 2 or 3 non-linked stories in a film, with the understanding that eventually the characters' paths will cross - but once you're aware of this technique, the film goes from unlikely to contrived)
#6 - as these separated family members (who aren't even aware that they're a family) keep missing each other, almost connecting but never really being able to - the best thing turns out to be for all three of them to play music. Because focusing on yourself and your music is the best way to connect with people you can't find - HUH?
You can't show us a mother who will do anything to find her son, and she vows to NEVER stop looking, no matter what - oh, right, after she performs with the New York Philharmonic, that is... So how long was that search, a few hours, before she was back to being self-absorbed again? No way will she be able to take care of her son - the father's a rock singer, and we know that they're not self-absorbed at all, right?
I don't have high hopes for this family unit. Mom and Dad will be performing or practicing all the time, and the kid's going to wish he was back in the orphanage - where he got beat up all the time, but at least that's a form of attention.
A movie doesn't have to be 100% believable, but it should at least be plausible, and this one is not, on any level.
Starring Freddie Highmore (last seen in "Finding Neverland"), Keri Russell (last seen in "Mission: Impossible III"), Jonathan Rhys-Meyers (ditto), Terrence Howard (last seen in "Iron Man"), William Sadler, Mykelti Williamson (last seen in "Heat").
RATING: 3 out of 10 wind chimes (and I hate to call "Shenanigans!", but the movie left me no choice...)
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