Directed by
John Carney
85 minutes
Rated M
Reviewed by
Andrew Lee
Once
Synopsis: Guy (Glen Hansard) meets Girl (Marketa Irglova) while busking on the streets of Dublin. They strike up a friendship and make beautiful music together, complicated by the fact that both are struggling with other relationships.
“I don’t know you, but I want you…”
A winner in every sense of the word, this is a beautiful film. The opening sets the tone perfectly, as Guy busks and a young punk snatches his guitar case for the money. One very funny chase scene later Guy’s actions are comically kind and decent as he catches the punk. And that’s what this film is, thoroughly decent and absurdly nice. It’s joyful about life even in the midst of some deeply sad events. The music is beautiful, as Guy and Girl sing their way through the story, the cathartic power of song lifting them above fairly mundane and sometimes unpleasant experiences.
It took me about fifteen minutes to realise Once is a musical, because there doesn’t seem anything odd about a busker singing a lot. But then everyone else sings too, and it dawned on me that this was a really beautiful musical. It’s a love story where things never go quite right and as the backstories of both Guy and Girl are explored songs both comical and heartrending are performed. The two main characters have broken relationships in need of repair, but perhaps, maybe they could just choose each other instead? This is the tension of the film, albeit one that is only gently pushed - Once isn’t a chest-baring exploration of relationships, it’s a happy and uplifting film about two nice people who like to sing together. Eventually their combined enthusiasm leads them gather a band around them to record an album. The scene where they ask a bank manager for a loan to pay for the studio is hysterical.
The relationship between Guy and Girl is effortlessly charming, a really unusual and quirky combination of charismatic acting and well-sketched characterisation. The direction is efficient, the camera working the musical angle with the long takes and crane shots favoured of the genre. The cinematography itself isn’t particularly special, with a handheld camera not always working well on a crane. Or on a street for that matter. But the film manages to rise above some dodgy framing because of one thing. The absolute highlight. The soundtrack. The songs wash over you and make you smile and fall in love. They make this the date movie for the year.
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