I saw this movie early in the summer and I absolutely loved it. The movie theater is still showing it because it's gotten such great buzz.
And I wrote a review of "Once" for my new blog
http://popcorninmybra.blogspot.com/
Sometimes in our lives someone or something will come, however briefly, and make a huge impact on us. Such is the Irish movie Once, an Irish film written and directed by John Carney. Though filmed in a mere seventeen days, and made for only $150,000, Once stays with you long after the credits roll. It is a deceptively simple story. Boy meets girl, they make beautiful music together, and maybe fall in love. It’s an anti-musical musical and anti-romance romance.
Glen Hansard, from the Irish band the Frames, plays an unnamed Irish street musician (none of the principle characters are given names). When he’s not singing and playing his battered guitar, he is repairing vacuum cleaners at his father’s shop and writing songs about an old girlfriend now living in England. Along comes a young Czech immigrant girl, wonderfully played by newcomer Marketa Irglova. She struggles to get by cleaning houses and selling roses on the street.
At a chance meeting, she is impressed by the musician’s performance and they strike up a conversation. It turns out she’s a singer and a pianist, and she takes him to a local music shop where she practices the piano during her free time. She would love to buy one, but needs her money to support her mother and infant daughter.
During one session at the shop, they run through a song called “Falling Slowly.” It is at this moment they bond as they work out this song about love gone wrong. Love gone wrong is something they know too much about. He is still pining for his ex-girlfriend. And it turns out she has a husband back home.
Inspired by the music, and perhaps by his growing attraction to his new friend, the street musician gathers up a bunch of rag tag musicians and somehow gets the money to rent a recording studio for the week-end. It is there that his rough songs take shape and soar. And despite his new found friendship with this new girl, he makes plans to go to England to win back the heart of his ex-girlfriend. And he thinks his songs will do the trick.
Unlike most Hollywood musicals, the characters just don’t burst into song. The songs, mostly written by Hansard, just flow organically. And unlike Hollywood romances, Once courts the idea of disappointment in life and love. This movie combines both sadness and happiness in a very poignant and human way. But you root for these two characters no matter where their lives may take them.
As mentioned before, Once was made on a shoestring budget. It has a gritty, working class feel of Ireland before the economic boom of the “Celtic Tiger.” The Irish brogues are very thick and sometimes a bit hard to understand, and the shaky camera work can be a bit disconcerting. But those aspects are minor. Once is truly one of the most satisfying movies I’ve seen this year
I wish this movie was still playing in my area I would go see it...
) with some girls from the audience doing the backup vocals. He also recognised a local singer/songwriter in the audience and invited him up on stage to sing one of his songs. That one was excellent too.
That's the middle of the night!
