Once
Starring Glen Hansard, Markéta Irglová.
Set in Dublin in the working class era, Once takes a journey with two inspired home town musicians. Glen Hansard plays a gentleman trying to scratch a living together by fixing vacuum cleaners for his father and busking on the street. Markéta Irglová is a younger woman struggling to support her mother and daughter.
These two lonely hearts meet on the street when Hansard's catchy lyrics intrigue Irglová as to what was causing his loneliness. Not used to intimate conversation, this leads to a very awkward encounter that's indicative of the rest of the film. Slowly a relationship builds and they begin on a musically-inspired romantic journey together.
The somewhat predictable Hollywood cliché storyline was awkwardly told around the many numbers performed by Hansard and Irglová (who are actual musicians and not actors). Hansard originally worked with the director and writer (John Carney) on the sound track, but when the lead actor pulled out, Hansard was invited to take the lead role. With no real acting experience (which wasn't too hard to see), Hansard put in a stellar effort.
Cleverly, Carney left out all superfluous detail including names, towns and dialogue; leaving the music to be the film's ticket seller. The non-coherence of the film was slightly hard to pick up, but it paints a fantastic abstract of Hansard's life.
I'm no music buff, but the sound track of this film was the main character. No matter who accompanied Hansard, every track had amazing personality. If you're a romantic who doesn't want to see another stereotypical romantic film, this is for you. 3.5 for the storyline, 0.5 for the welling up.
4/5 Stars
Stewart Jones
