"Once" (2007)

The Good:
I've been waiting to see this film for as long as I can remember. As it is the case with all movies I hype up in my own mind, they disappoint. However, "Once" didn't.

Almost every film that I've seen released this year has seemed pretty complicated. "Michael Clayton", "No Country for Old Men", "I'm Not There", "Eastern Promises", they all rely on fairly complicated storylines and sub-plots. "Once" succeeds on it's simplicity. The storyline is so simple, so streamlined, so easily decipherable, that all the audience has to do is sit back and watch the beauty unfold. Yes these two main characters have backstories and factors influencing their actions, but nothing too daunting for the audience to discover for themselves. The story is brilliantly executed, and succeeds on every level.

The music. My god, the music. I bought this soundtrack a couple of days before seeing the film, and had listened to it a few times. I discovered the main hit from the movie, "Falling Slowly", on Youtube a while back and had instantly fallen (slowly, haha) in love with the song. The rest of the songs in the film were just as spellbinding and heartbreaking as "Falling Slowly." Each song fits perfectly in to the film, and each song lends itself so well to the already perfect plot. Most of the songs are also cleverly inserted. Unlike most musicals which rely on the theory of the "instant chorus" and breaking in to song out of the blue, the plot of "Once" has each song placed in a way so that it doesn't feel like the audience has been inserted in to the magical world of "musicals". The film never feels like a Hollywood Musical, and that makes perfect sense considering that the film is not that at all. It's a breath of fresh air from the "Hairsprays", "Dreamgirls", and "Rents" that we've been subjected to.

The Bad:
Now, coming from a theatre background, I pay very close attention to the quality of acting in a film. While the acting in this film is nowhere near bad, it is visibly amateurish, and seems too contrived and too forced at times. This makes for some awkward line delivery, and broke my suspension of disbelief at a few times throughout the film. However, both Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova do a formidable job, considering they both are amateurs. Both have never acted in films previously, and unfortunately there are times when it's apparent. This is just a caveat, though, and does not inhibit the film at all.

Overall:
A refreshing modern musical encompassing great music and plot to deliver one of the year's best films, and one of the best music films of the decade.

A-