Reviews

Picture Oliver Twist, an orphan in a big city, who runs away from his parentless life to fall in with "Wizard" Wallace (Fagin) and Arthur (The Artful Dodger). But, instead of the typical musical that comes from such a setting, we get Mozart thrown in and are treated to some of the best music imaginable! August, like Mozart, hears his music before he commits it to paper and this improvisational spirit comes out in this movie. The writers of this screenplay must be familiar with Dickens to so faithfully modernize such a wonderful book without doing the poor job that many others have created in other attempts.

The positive spirit of August (Evan) propels the movie forward at every turn. Not subject to the "realities" others are mired with, August pushes on to obtain that which he most wants, to find his parents through his music. Even Mr. Brownlow has a type of himself in this movie with the social worker, Richard Jeffries, who helps both August's mother, Lyla, as well as August.

The facade that is Fagin is also seen in Wizard Wallace's character, with money being the underlying motive for both men. Even Arthur betrays August when jealousy sullies their friendship as August begins to ride the upswing his talent generates.

Yet, unbridled hope exudes from August and even the darkest turn comes out well for him in the end, with even the self-centered motivations of Wizard Wallace not hindering August from attaining his destiny.

The cast carry off their parts very well, and there is no lag in the story even as time is manipulated to complete the character's background and let the audience in on motivations, desires, and disappointments. The end result is a splendid movie with an excellent musical score accompanying.

Having read the story and listened to the unabridged audio many times, this film version leaves me flat. Character development of David, especially the removal of the narrative style of the story in the book, hollows-out the characters, leaving the relationship of David and Amanda out altogether (which had been one of the best parts of the story). The death of Norm portion in the loading dock/storeroom was especially faithful to the story, however, and shines as the best portion of the film. The suspense of the scene is carried off well as is the pharmacy scene. Yet again, the book makes the pharmacy seem to have been a smaller store than depicted with the addition of the MP death by baby spiders scene being wholly gratuitous. The race to David's truck was nicely carried out, with the reverses well played. It surprised me that the screenplay author felt it necessary to leave out the faint hope of Stephanie Drayton yet being alive by the return to the Drayton's house and the discovery of her body there. A constant in the plot had been of David visualizing Stephanie working in the garden as he had left her on that first morning. This was a source of guilt on David's part because of the developing relationship with Amanda. But, the most galling portion was the murderous end of the movie! This was a complete opposite to the book, which had the survivors holed-up in a hotel some distance from their hometown at the end of the novella. A feeling of hope was given in the book, whereas the movie left one with a feeling of pointlessness, especially when the woman who had gone to find her children early in the movie turned up alive and well with her kids. When the book had her as one of the first to die. Overall, a movie that showed promise at first, but leaves a lot to be desired at the end. SK's books are always a lot better than the movies accredited to them.