August Rush

Evan, a musically gifted orphan, runs away from his orphanage and searches New York City for his birth parents. On his journey, he's taken under the wing of the Wizard, a homeless man who lives in an abandoned theater. After discovering his talent, the Wizard gives Evan the name "August Rush" and devises a plan to profit from his talent. Little does Evan know that his parents, Lyla and Louis, are searching for him too.

Critics were largely unkind to August Rush, dismissing it as a contrived, logic-defying melodrama that piles coincidence on coincidence and leaves its characters paper-thin. The film's one consistent defender was its music — the score drew genuine praise and earned an Oscar nomination — and a small minority of critics argued that if you let the sentimentality wash over you, it works on its own dreamy terms. General audiences have been considerably warmer than critics, and that gap has only widened over time.