The moment I left the theatre after seeing "Once", I couldn't help but go to the first music store I saw and buy the soundtrack. As I listened to the songs again in my car, the images of the film came flowing back, images I'm sure I won't forget as I'mI think this is one of the greatest love stories ever made."Once" begins with a busker on the streets of Dublin (Glen Hansard) singing his heart out. One night a girl (Marketa Irglova) stops and listens to him play. She's impressed by his singing and his songs. They make small talk like strangers sometimes do, she asks if the song he sang was to a girl, it was but he doesn't get into that. He mentions that he has a day job at a vacuum cleaner repair shop owned by his father. The next day she returns to his street corner with her broken vacuum cleaner, but he doesn't have the tools to repair it, so instead she takes him to a music store where the owner there lets her play piano. She plays for him a little, he likes it, and they decide to try a song he wrote together.
What I described above is the set up for a beautiful song, and a beautiful scene. The two begin to play "Falling Slowly" which is the trademark song to this film and as the two begin the duet you snese this is the beginning of something very special. Despite the fact that the two hardly know each other, they have a certain undeniable musical chemistry.
As the two get to know each other, he tells her about the love of his life who inspired many of his songs and in a wonderful flashback we get a glimpse of how happy he was with her. She left him and is now living in London, but he still pines for her.
The girl then shows him her lifestyle, she lives with her mother and daughter in a crowded apartment with only one television that all the tenants have to share. She's married but her husband is living far away.
The busker gets the idea that he wants to leave Dublin and move to London to find the girl he left behind, but before he does he wants to record songs with the girl.
Despite both of their lost loves, we the audience feel there are no two people in this world as perfect for each other as they are. The music speaks volumes and in about 80 minutes we live an unforgettable romance with this un named man and woman.
The writer/director John Carney has made a perfect film, I found nothing at fault with it. It screams joy and depicts the life of young love, unrequited love, artists striving to be heard, and those unforgettable moments that make life worth living. There are movies that speak to a generation, this film sings to it and it's a song of joy. I've seen many cynical movies that can leave people jaded, this film seems to make an argument that movies can move you again in new and unique ways.
I couldn't help but relate to this guy and girl, in a perfect world they would be together probably on stage singing somewhere, and even though there are realities that prevent this it doesn't crush their spirit.
There were moments that (If I could use a cliche) made me laugh, made me cry, but mostly it was a film that inspired the artist in me, at the end I didn't know if I wanted to pick up a camera or pick up a guitar.
4 stars out of 4
No comments:
Post a Comment