In photographer John Mathieson's wonderful opening shot, we see an ecstatic boy commanding and "conducting" the amber waves of grain in a wheat field. His name is not yet "August Rush," but it will be. He was born with the amazing gift of hearing -- and bringing out -- the music in everything around him.

Cynics need not apply to this sentimental family-fare fantasy, which flashes back to the seminal events of 11 years earlier: Beautiful young cellist Lyla (Keri Russell) performs a brilliant concert in New York City. At a party afterward, she meets equally beautiful young Irish guitarist Louis (Jonathan Rhys Meyers). They fall in love at first sex. She promises to meet him again the following day, but her lout of a father (William Sadler) thwarts the tryst. Lyla is devastated.

She is also pregnant.

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'August Rush'

• Starring: Jonathan Rhys Meyers, left, and Freddie Highmore, above, and Keri Russell and Robin Williams.
• Rating: PG for some thematic elements, mild violence and language.
• Web site: augustrushmovie.warnerbros.com

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But the unborn baby is lost in a car accident. She quits performing, and moves to Chicago. Louis opts out of his band for a business career in San Francisco. Eleven years later comes word that, well, perhaps her child is alive after all.

Screenwriters Nick Castle and James V. Hart owe a royalty check to Dickens for the rest of the story, whose title character is a latterday Oliver Twist. Bullied at his orphanage for being a "freak," the kid runs away, wanders around Manhattan and falls in with Wizard (Robin Williams), a nasty Fagin with a ragamuffin ring of young musicians who live in a derelict theater and play for change on street corners.

Once August gets his hands on a guitar, he astonishes everyone with his natural skill. Wizard assigns the little prodigy a prime busking spot in Washington Square, where the sounds of the city resonate creatively in his head, inspiring him to new musical heights and depths. But his one real goal remains steady: to find his parents, through the music he's convinced they can "hear."

"I believe in music the way some people believe in fairy tales," says August (Freddie Highmore), and director Kirsten Sheridan duly directs her material as such. A kindly church pastor makes August his resident choir organist and then takes the boy to Juilliard, where grand dame Marian Seldes cultivates his talent. From there, it's a short step to writing a symphony and conducting it himself at a concert for thousands in Central Park. Can that parental reunion be far behind?

There's not one realistic minute, but Highmore somehow carries it. One of the best child actors in the biz ("Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," "Finding Neverland"), he is possessed of a tranquil disposition and magically sweet half-smile -- charming and disarming throughout, especially by contrast to frantically over-the-top Williams. Russell and Rhys Myers, for their parts, are busy being beautiful.

Aside from Highmore (and his amazing "overhand" guitar style), what saves the picture is the music itself, an eclectic blend of symphonic, rock, gospel and street styles, with passable tunes by Mark Mancina and Hans Zimmer. Particularly fine are the simultaneous guitar-cello pieces cleverly mixed into a "duet." And young Jamia Simone Nash's sassy attitude and great gospel voice nearly steals Auggie's thunder.

The corny climax is dragged out mercilessly but, hey, wholesome tearjerkers fostering music appreciation have their place.