ONCE
Music and Lyrics ... and love, without the Hollywood gloss
The Popcorn Reel Movie Review: "Once"
By Omar P.L. Moore/May 17, 2007
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Closer
Apart. Marketa Irglova (left) and Glen Hansard (lead singer of The
Frames) in John Carney's exquisite "Once".
(All photos: Samson Films/Summit Enterprises in conjunction with Fox
Searchlight.)
John Carney's exquisite "Once" does so much more with
less. A love story, a musical poem of longing, yearning, passion and
desire, Mr. Carney's film succeeds on the simplicity and nakedness of its
characters' emotions.
A guy (Glen Hansard, real-life musician of group The Frames) and a girl (Marketa
Irglova) meet in the high streets of Dublin. The guy is playing a guitar
and singing his heart out late one evening. He uneasily earns a living as
a street musician while trying to recover from the cheating ways of an
ex-girlfriend (Marcella Plunkett). (Guess which of these two things is
easier for him to do.) The girl has been selling magazines appropriately
titled "Issues". She begins to second-guess her marriage to a man who has
shirked his parental responsibilities. After the girl's vacuum cleaner is
repaired by the guy's father (Bill Hodnett), whom the guy still lives with, the
girl and guy become an Ashford and Simpson of sorts. The girl's
piano-playing talents are unearthed during a session at a music showroom and the
ease with which the two become a musical duo is remarkable. They build a
songbook together and their musical talents take them to places they had
probably not contemplated before they met.
"Once" is essentially a long-form music video, with each of the songs coming
from the characters and not from source music. That said, it is not a
musical. Granted, in reality Mr. Hansard and Ms. Irglova are songwriters
and musicians first, but their chemistry as onscreen actors is effortless.
Mr. Carney's film is devoid of pretension and melodrama. Stripped of
gloss, "Once" is shot mostly with hand-held digital video cameras throughout
Dublin and without the Hollywood bright lights. For all its appeal and
smooth, quiet seduction, "Once" is sentimental without being obvious.
Sentimentality in motion pictures is far from a bad thing, but when films go out
of their way to guide one to an emotion, any emotion at all, then something in
the narrative is lacking, and the script needs to be rewritten so as not to
spoon-feed its audience.
Thankfully, Mr. Carney's script doesn't suffer from this problem. His
economy of words are translated wonderfully by the main actors. The actors
are not a tabloid high-maintenance couple oozing with chiseled movie star looks,
or tanned, streamline physiques or artificial beauty. But their eyes say
so much. Mr. Hansard conveys pain in his eyes so well during his songs (he
wrote almost all of them for the film) which have such an eruption and crescendo
of emotion that you can feel his heart wailing plaintively. Listen
especially to the powerful and moving "Falling Slowly." Some of the
dialogue is skillfully worked and interpreted into improvisational bursts on Mr.
Hansard's guitar in one particular scene early on, and this is most enjoyable.
For Ms. Irglova, the music she plays conveys feelings and communications that
words are so inadequate to translate or transcribe. She strikes chords so
deep in our hearts as she plays. Both lead characters are making love to
each other with their musical instruments even as the yearning for their own
personal closeness to each other is truncated and made inadequate by life's
intervening realities. They are so intimate and in tune with each other
musically, yet so far away. Bruno Dumont (director of "Flanders") who has
shown explicit graphic sex in his films once said that sex is such a lonely act,
and ultimately tragic because though a uniting takes place the prospect to
actually unite as one is an impossibility. While that
outlook may seem bleak to some, "Once" is an avenue for hope, encouragement and
intimacy, regardless of whether such is actually consummated on the big screen.
"Once" isn't bogged down in the elements that ordinarily hamper romance films.
It is straight-forward, real, adult, honest and true to itself, and to its
audience. In fact it would be a grave error to call "Once" a romantic
film, and more accurate to appraise it as a film of and about love, desire and
the courage to seek out your dreams and find or reclaim the one person in the
world that you wouldn't ever want to live without.
If music is the food of love, then consider yourself well fed after watching one
of the most unique, delightful and charming films of the century. Whether
in love or not, whether musically inclined or not, "Once" will leave your heart
warm and a sunny smile etched upon your face. Mr. Carney has crafted one
of the year's very best experiences at a theater near you, and you owe it to
yourself to witness it during this summer season of the blockbuster.
"Once" was shown at the 50th San Francisco International Film Festival
recently. The film opened in New York City yesterday (May 16) and opens in
various American cities including San Francisco, on May 25. "Once" is
rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for language. The
film's duration is one hour and 28 minutes.
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