I Can Be Spontaneous. Once.

I wouldn't consider myself a spontaneous person. Over the past month, that little spontaneity I have has dwindled to deciding whether to put cheese in my eggs rather than eating them plain; truly remarkable decisions. Yesterday afternoon I felt like I was in a bit of rut so getting out of the apartment was the only choice I had. After scanning the movie listings online I settled on the choice of "Once," a new independent "musical" currently playing at Landmark Sunshine.

The preview had left me fairly ambivalent about my feelings towards what I was about to see but all of that quickly disappeared. From the moment the movie began I knew I was in for something different. Set in Dublin, the story follows a heartbroken guitar playing street singer (played by musician Glen Hansard) who meets a young Czech woman on the street one day. Others pass by and drop money in his case but she stops to ask him silly questions and eventually asks him to fix her vacuum, which is his day job. Sound silly on paper? It did to me too but the way the story unfolds is unlike any that I've ever seen. There is a simpleness to the filmmaking that feels a bit like it’s a homemade documentary following the creative process and bond that these two characters will undergo together.

This isn't a musical in the sense that they stop and sing character driven songs while vendors on the street dance with jazz hands behind them. Instead it uses the music of these two musicians to tell the various emotions overwhelming their lives at the moment. On the day that they first meet, the woman takes him into a piano shop where they promptly sit down and share some music with each other. The interaction slowly builds and he teaches her the accompaniment to one of his songs, which they sing until it swells through the store and they are elevated to an almost trancelike state of understanding. The two musicians in this movie have incredible talent and listening to him sing (most easily comparable to Damien Rice but with more strength) really helps carry the movie.

It isn't a sweeping love story like I would normally expect but because of that it becomes so much more touching. There is an awkwardness to their relationship that dissipates as soon as they begin playing music together. It's a simple testament to the power that a person can have on you to create and step forward. This chance meeting becomes the impetus for change that they both needed in their personal and artistic lives but without any of the overwrought emotion usually attached to a movie. I would highly recommend this movie for it's simplicity and the music which carries the film and transports the audience along with it as the characters are transported to different places in their lives. The singer's answer to everything is a routine "cool" which is exactly what was going through my head as I left the theater.

Comments

[John]

Hi there, I am working on the film ONCE. Will you email me at john.maybee@fox.com? Thanks.