Whenever there’s a kind of “It” kid being cast as the go-to supporting child character in every sentimental movie being released, I always hope to god they get to keep the insane coin that they must be making off these roles. In the early 2000s this part was played by Dakota Fanning, and she seems to be doing alright for herself. For the mid to late 2000s, it was Freddie Highmore (fun fact: Highmore has gone on to portray Norman Bates in the series Bates Motel; E.T. star Henry Thomas also portrayed Bates in the 1990 movie Psycho IV: The Beginning).
There may be something to be said, however, about going to the cute-kid well a few times too many, and for Highmore, August Rush may have been one of those times. Of course he has to be precocious, a musical prodigy, and that’s just the base of this movie’s mountain of implausibility. The worst thing about it is that the public reaction to it was somewhat positive, and movies like The Odd Life of Timothy Green ended up getting made too.
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