Der Klang des Herzens

I really like stories associated with good music. That was one of the reasons why I played this movie. But the initial madness about New York and the subsequent discovery of little August’s genius confirmed my idea that this is not a good movie. When I was watching the scene in which August plays the guitar for the first time, I felt like throwing up. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a pathetic movie. I’d love to see somebody just pick up the guitar and start playing like that at the age of ten. And the way the director filmed it was actually irritating and unpleasant for me. The only good thing about this film is Robin Williams and that’s only because his strange character had something to it. But I want to forget the rest as soon as possible. The film’s ending is like it was cut out from a documentary on the Jehovah’s Witnesses, where all’s well that ends well and everybody lives happily ever after until they die. (17.04.2017)

An attempt at a new-age fairy tale, where the role of magic is substituted by music in all of its forms. In principle, there’s nothing wrong with that except for one detail; the (tacky) heart-warmingness is too forced, not at all natural. The director aggressively pushes this left and right, in every second of the footage, in every frame of the film. It’s like she’s holding a knife to your neck and saying you’d better feel moved, or else!... Well, this achieves the exact opposite effect and instead of feeling moved, I felt genuine hatred. So in the end, it worked exactly as it should. It provoked an emotional response in me (even though a different one than planned), which is a rare occurrence. (16.12.2012)

Several times during the film I thought how beautifully it was all sketched out and violently pushed towards the final encounter, but then, when suddenly the wonderful romantic climax arrives, I was soaking up all that love, positive mood and good filmmaking intentions so much that a rush of the opposite emotions would surely have caused me a deadly depression. A nice little story, suitable not only for people obsessed with music in any form, but also for die-hard idealists who never cease to be delighted by the original depiction of unconquerable love in Hollywood films. And last but not least, it’s more than suitable for the fans of the angelic Keri Russell, in whose eyes I drowned at least twelve times during the film... 85% (12.08.2014)

But what if, even though it's overly sweet and towards the end, it becomes so heavily scripted that it could possibly lead to a strange encounter, it still makes you happy, it makes you feel joy. That's good. I just found it slightly annoying that it borrows too much from Dickens' "Oliver Twist" without even acknowledging it as inspiration. Nevertheless, it is clearly well cast in terms of the actors. (23.02.2015)