Once

Starring: Glen Hansard, Marketa Irglova Directed by: John Carney Runtime: 96 min. Rated: PG-13 Release date: May 16, 2007 - More Info
READER RATINGS:
6.4 OVERALL	Smart . . . . . . . . 7.2 Sexy . . . . . . . . . 5.2 Funny . . . . . . . . 6.8

The Nerve Review

There's a thin line between cute and precious, and the micro-budget Irish musical Once pirouettes back and forth across it for the better part of its eighty-eight minutes. A grizzled Dublin sidewalk busker with an ex-girlfriend obsession (Glen Hansard of Irish balladeers The Frames) — a one-man Snow Patrol, really — plays in the street to an audience of zero, breaking into falsetto and emotive growls when it suits the song. Cute. The same guy, also a part-time vacuum repairman, woos a young Czech lass (Marketa Irglova) on the back of a public bus by loudly improvising songs of heartbreak. Precious, creepy, and probably illegal.

Shot on digital video to choke out artifice, Once attempts a modest experiment in cinematic form, where anodyne acoustic pop ballads substitute for presumably anodyne dialogue. Contrary to the narrative fragmentation of traditional movie musicals, we're supposed to believe that the principals — both musicians — would break into song without breaking character. This is, of course, a disconcerting idea for any audience members who didn't hang out with musical-theater students or Guitar Guy From the Quad in college.

The Brief Encounter-style romance of Once takes place over a weekend recording session, and like the recent Hustle & Flow, the film offers an insider's peek at the musical process. In the film's best scene, the only one that fully evokes the song-as-cocoon atmosphere of the whole endeavor, the girl (the film is too wispy to provide names) walks around her block in pajamas, attempting to put lyrics to the chords playing on her Discman. Unfortunately, a movie like this lives and dies by its music — from what I hear, the similar Music and Lyrics is a winner in this regard — and the Hansard/Irglova duo (who wrote all the songs) never quite get their inoffensive melodies to stick. — Akiva Gottlieb

Other Reviews

The New York Times
A.O. Scott
"[Once] does not look, sound or feel like a typical musical. It is realistic rather than fanciful, and the characters work patiently on the songs rather than bursting spontaneously into them. But its low-key affect and decidedly human scale endow Once with an easy, lovable charm that a flashier production could never have achieved."
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The Village Voice
Robert Wilonsky
"A deceptively simple movie — a narrative strung together pop songs, but without the sheen (or arrogance) of most cinematic musicals. . . Yet the magic of the movie is how utterly wrenching it renders these songs, which thrive alongside the film's simple, eloquent, dusky narrative. . . a movie in which people sing to each other, only without the genre's distancing artifice."
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The Hollywood Reporter
James Greenberg
"Enormous charm and zero pretense. . . it should win over an indie audience with its likable characters and terrific music. . . As the songs come together in the studio, the music and their feelings build to a climax that is achingly real."
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Variety
Justin Chang
"Winningly unpretentious tale uses a wispy romantic narrative as a vehicle for attractive original tunes. . . Natural thesping and appealing music make the whole enterprise a low-key charmer."
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LA Weekly
Ella Taylor
"Once feels handmade in the best sense, an impressionistic feast for the senses."
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Your Reviews

Im kind of a sentimental fellow when it comes to movies. I want nothing more than to be transported by them, to have my strings pulled and emotions tweaked. Certain films will do that to you, and you'll feel manipulated. Others will work their magic from the get-go, and you'll let yourself be carried away, because you love the story, or the characters, or (in my case) the direction. I wasn't familiar with the work of John Carney before seeing ONCE, but after this, I'll let the guy film someone reading from the phone book. So compelling is this story of two lonely souls finding love in contemporary Dublin, I fell for it hook, line, and sinker. To extend the cliches: he had me at hello.