Do you believe in magic? Do you think small can be beautiful? Are you looking for a little film you can make your own, an enchanting, unpretentious blend of music and romance you can watch forever? If you do, "Once" is about to come into your life and make it whole. It's an old film, but we love it and can't resist writing about it.
"Once" is a wee slip of a movie, 85 minutes long and notably light on plot. Guy meets girl, guy writes a few songs with girl, guy and girl try to figure out what to do about their mutual attraction. We never learn their names, the movie's that basic. And more importantly, the leads are not actors trying to sing but real musicians who are acting. Yet there are more emotions repressed and then sung out in this transcendent Irish film than in a year of blockbusters, and in its brief running time, writer-director-a former member of the Frames - John Carney does something both profound and unexpected: He reinvents the movie musical as a genre of swooning rock 'n' roll realism. Carney makes a persuasive case that the real future of the genre may lie not in splashy grandeur but in modesty and understatement.
Shot for only €130,000 ($160,000), the film was very successful, earning substantial per-screen box office averages in the United States. It received extremely enthusiastic reviews and awards such as the 2007 Independent Spirit Award for best foreign film. It is not a film with any great ambitions to declare, or any knotty themes to articulate. It celebrates doggedness, good-humored discipline and desire — the desire not only to write a song or make a recording, but the deeper longing for communication that underlies any worthwhile artistic effort. The special poignancy of the movie, the happy-sad feeling it leaves in its wake, comes from its acknowledgment that the satisfaction of these aspirations is usually transient, even as it can sometimes be transcendent.
The music sounds just as, or even more, wonderful away from the emotional context of the visuals. Like the movie, the songs of "Once" appear simple but are deceptively complex, warmly engaging and emotionally satisfying. Glen Hansard, the lead and primary songwriter, and with the soul of an Irish poet he ties words and melody together in a way that prods you to remember the moments you fell in love. We guarantee that once you're done with this movie you'll be filled by music that is as heartfelt, organic and immediate as today’s radio hits are plastic, non-consequential and soul-draining.
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