Despite a shaky start with a wobbly hand held camera and broad
Irish accents, Once ends up being a pleasant romantic
interlude about two young people brought together by their shared
joy of music. The cameraman has his rockers on for a fair bit
of the movie but you get used to it, as you do the strongly local
dialect.
This realistic musical set in gritty parts of Dublin
starts as Glen Hansard of the Irish rock band The Frames plays
a lonely busker belting out tunes with a very battered guitar
one night on a cold street corner. Immigrant Marketa Irglova a
young Czech single mother who ekes out a living selling flowers
on the street listens in rapture, and asks why he doesn't sing
his original songs during the day. People don't pay to hear them
he tells her they just want the popular tunes.
Next day she brings her broken vacuum for him to
repair as that's his real job. They end up in a music shop where
she plays piano and together they develop the quite beautiful
song 'Falling Slowly'. This scene alone makes the film memorable
and you'd have to be Attila the Hun not to feel moved. At all
events this leads to a close collaboration between these two street
people and more than a touch of romance even after a awkward move
on Hansard's part that threatens to blow the relationship before
it starts. They finally scrape up money to hire a studio for the
weekend and with additional band members made up of other buskers
they put an album down. Even their bored and skeptical producer
ends up thinking it may have a chance of success, yet their short
romance is falling under a dark star.
The
slight storyline is an excuse to tell much through writer/director
John Carney's songs which are a fair slice of the film. In fact
he refers to his film as a 'visual album'. Hansard certainly brings
power to the lyrics with a voice of fog horn proportions. For
fans of the band The Frames he's sure to be a big hit.
You may remember Glen Hansard started his career
in Alan Parker's film The Commitments some years ago,
here he and Marketa Irglova are suitably appealing together not
only singing duet but so convincing with their hesitant natural
delivery. They lift the film out of the ordinary by their sincere
and compassionate portrayals. One delightful scene is Irglova
in pyjamas listening through headphones and singing to 'If You
Want Me' as she returns from a corner store late one night after
buying batteries for her music player. Worthy of mention is Bill
Hodnett as Hansard's gruff but sympathetic Dad who finally encourages
him to leave and go to London. A compelling piece of support acting.
The director John Carney was himself once a bass
player for The Frames, and he pulls off a difficult act using
three minute grabs of his pop songs to extend the romantic plot
without the artificial theatricality of musicals like Phantom
of the Opera. Also the two stars actually perform the numbers
which is not always the case in musicals where dubbing if often
used as the actor simply hasn't the voice. Carney manages a good
balance between the musical sequences and the emotional ones.
He gives the movie the heart it needs to support the romantic
plot. Its main weakness however, as mentioned, is the dithering
cinematography which deserves to be better.
Yet Once works a kind of magic and should
charm most audiences especially those who enjoy Carney's style
of music.
John Bale
To see a clip of
the Oscar-nominated song 'Falling Slowly' from Once,
click on the play button below:
Despite a shaky start with a wobbly hand held camera and broad
Irish accents, Once ends up being a pleasant romantic
interlude about two young people brought together by their shared
joy of music. The cameraman has his rockers on for a fair bit
of the movie but you get used to it, as you do the strongly local
dialect. 
The
slight storyline is an excuse to tell much through writer/director
John Carney's songs which are a fair slice of the film. In fact
he refers to his film as a 'visual album'. Hansard certainly brings
power to the lyrics with a voice of fog horn proportions. For
fans of the band The Frames he's sure to be a big hit.