History Film / AugustRush

A boy named Evan Taylor (Creator/FreddieHighmore) lives in an orphanage but believes that his parents are alive. He believes that the music that he hears all around him (which others interpret as background noise) is his parents communicating with him. He meets a counselor, Richard Jeffries (Terrence Howard), of the New York Child Services Department. Evan tells Jeffries that he does not want to be adopted because he believes his parents are still alive and will come to collect him eventually.

* ConcertClimax

%%* AffablyEvil: Wizard.

* SanitySlippage: It's possible that Wizard was a person who was slowly losing it due to rough childhood, poverty, and general disillusionment with the world. It's even possible to craft a possible backstory to him, given hints from the movie. Based on his rant to Jeffries about what child protective services "really does", it seems he has personal experience with that situation. Plus the film seems to hint that he has been a street performer for a long time now, which doesn't pay well, and may have been why he took in all the other runaways in the first place, he may have genuinely believed they'd be better off with him than alone. Of course, it also appears even at his initial meeting, that he is a little unhinged, and the prospect of August being his "ticket to riches" (and then losing that prospect) just drove him deeper into madness until even Arthur (who seemed to think well of him at first) knows he needs to be stopped.

** No explanation is given for how Evan was able to enroll at Julliard despite having no apparent legal guardian to sign the paperwork, nor does the school make any attempts to see if he's a missing child or a ward of the state (he is both).

* MeddlingParents: Lyla's father [[spoiler:forging adoption papers]] in order to keep Lyla on the path to success.

* EarlyBirdCameo: If you pay attention, you might notice that the street musician playing the harmonica when Lewis and Lyla meet is probably Wizard (you don't see his face, but he has a similar cowboy hat and jacket, is holding a guitar, and plays a song on his harmonica that Wizard plays in a later scene).

* DepartmentOfChildDisservices: Played with, mostly from the "overworked and underfunded" angle. Wizard calls Mr. Jeffries out on this trope when he comes looking for Evan and several other missing children.

[[caption-width-right:350:''I believe in music the way that some people believe in fairy tales.'']]

* AmbiguousDisorder: Evan has difficulty relating to other children and adults, grasping basic social cues, and does not generally comprehend sarcasm or when he's being taken advantage of. He's likely more naive than the average 11-year-old due to his childhood in a group home, but it's played to an extreme.

* AdultFear: This movie is ''full'' of adult fear. Lyla has been told her baby died at birth, only to later find out her father gave him away, and then that he's missing. Evan runs away from his group home and spends upwards of a year living on the streets of New York City. He falls into a gang of other street children with a terrifying, exploitative adult. Thankfully, the only exploitation Wizard wants is of Evan's musical ability--he could have wanted something much, much worse.
* AffablyEvil: Wizard.

%%* AffablyEvil: Wizard.

%%* ConcertClimax

%%* EarnYourHappyEnding

%%* EvilRedhead: Wizard.
%%* TheFagin: Wizard again
%%* {{Jerkass}}: The Wizard again.

%%* SerendipitousSymphony: A ''lot''.

%%* StarCrossedLovers: Lyla and Louis.
%%* TitleDrop: By Wizard.