List Price:   $14.98 Price:   $10.49 find out more information

Buy posters from this movie

Once is the story of a down-on-his-luck street musician (Glen Hansard) who comes in contact with a female musician (Marketa Irglova). Both are dealing with relationships that are failing. Feeling the need to have another person in their life, the two develop a friendship and decide to make music together. And then . . . well . . . that’s pretty much everything there is to say about the film’s plot. Nothing of particular nail-biting importance happens to these never-named people, and blood, sweat, and tears are never spilled. But the film retains an importance because its themes are universal. There is a healing power to music. Friendship is an essential part of life. Dreams can come true. Of course, at this point your eyes are rolling. This must seem like the silliest bit of business ever to be burned onto celluloid. Somehow, though, it’s not. Somehow, this is a movie that will turn even cynical emotional robots into bundles of optimistic mush.

The resultant sensitive nature of the film comes specifically from certain directorial choices made by Carney. First, Carney has decided to subvert many of the typical clichés found in lesser films. For example, unlike many films where conflict is derived from disapproving parents, the protagonist’s father in Once is actually very supportive of his son’s desires to become a musician. He doesn’t complain that his son isn’t spending more time working in the family owned vacuum repair shop, and he doesn’t dismiss his son’s dreams of becoming a more reputable musician.

A more important undermined convention is the way in which Carney has created a film virtually without conflict. Seriously, this film creates absolutely no anxiety in the viewer. Any inclination to sit at the edge of your seats will be dashed by a comfortable calm. The film is a veritable chill pill. And it’s so refreshing. Once will be released amid the summer blockbusters, and what a brilliant little piece of counter-programming it will be. While pirates struggle to find Jack Sparrow and Spiderman struggles with the monster within, the characters of Once don’t struggle with much of anything at all. The film’s a remedy to those who have been pumped full of all that Hostel: Part 2 fearful adrenaline.

Some of the warmth of the story comes from the way in which the film was shot. Uniquely, Carney has constructed his movie musical on the shoulders of realists. Filmed on-location, there is a certain raw quality to the cinematography, which creates an affectionate and inviting experience. As this method of photography is matched with the nature of the film as a musical, the audience finds that Once reaches a level of intimacy not seen in your typical song and dance spectacle. When MGM tapped and hoofed into the hearts of the movie going public back in the 1930s, the attraction was escapism. Interestingly, Once, as has already been suggested, is also an escapist film. But while 1930s MGM lifted society out of the depression, Once lifts its viewers out of the doldrums of today’s vapid and hollow blockbusters. With this in mind, it’s tempting to suggest, then, that MGM saved lives and Once saves art, but this type of statement fails to reveal Once’s humanity and the way it creates empathy for its characters. The stars of the Depression-era MGM films were just as the moniker suggests – stars, distant spectacles that brighten lives. In Once, Hansard and Irglova are not stars as much as they are friends, people whom we know and, more importantly, people who know us. Therefore, when Hansard sings about heartache, it’s difficult to dismiss his sentimentality. We feel his pain.

To be fair, the emotion that emanates from the songs isn’t just a result of the film’s presentation. Hansard’s and Irglova’s compositions are genuinely good. The music in Once is a sort of singer/songwriter folk, but it lacks all of the pretensions of some of the worst of that genre. Hansard, in particular, demonstrates an ability to create music that devastates the listener and then rebuilds over the destruction. A veteran of the film, The Commitments, Hansard’s work follows in the spirit of that film and lifts the viewer. Although the music is different, the results are the same – the audience can’t help but be inspired.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator, Joss Whedon, once stated that in preparing his show it was important for him to give to his fanatical audience not what they wanted, but what they needed. After all, who always wants the predictable? Or, in other terms, who can survive on sugar alone? While Whedon’s ideas are sound, especially for television, Once proves that sometimes all you need is the sweet stuff. For Carney’s audience, what they need is also what they want.

Thus, ultimately, "Once" is a film that isn’t afraid to make things simple, sweet, and easy. It’s a surprisingly filling puff film with passionate music that never ceases to uplift. And it’s as straightforward as that . . . Now, I’m going to get a tissue.

 del.icio.us    
link directly to this review at http://efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=15707&reviewer=421
originally posted: 05/24/07 04:25:24
 printer-friendly format