Critics hail this movie as great and some even put it on their best of 2007 list.  Critics also call this the modern musical.  I don’t know what I call it, but being a fan of The Frames (who leading man Glen Hansard is the lead singer of), I can tell you Once is good.  It’s like listening to a CD by The Frames so in a way, it is like an extended music video.

The movie, in fact, seems like a music video, but much more like a family video showing the life of Glen Hansard in a period amidst love, broken hearts, lack of recording contracts, but constantly expressing himself through music.  I think The Frames are an acquired taste; however, I think anyone can appreciate their music.  Hansard puts so much emotion into his music that one cannot just simply listen.  One instead feels for the yearnings and heartbreak of Hansard, and in this case, his character.

This movie was originally supposed to star Cillian Murphy, but he declined once he found out the female lead would be a non-actor.  Hansard had been signed on to do the music for the film, and so we have two non-actors that completely pull off the fact that they are alone, but love music, and in fact easily fall in love together although they can’t completely consummate that love due to the marriage of Irglova’s character (who has no name in the movie).  Actually, Hansard and Irglova have fallen trap to the movie cliché of dating in real life who you are to be fake dating in a film.  The movie is 100% convincing that the two were in love long before filming started which is what makes Once so good.

The use of hand held cameras and a $160,000 budget also is what makes Once so good. They realized that simple is better and just let the two grow to love what each other do and who they are and let them play their music.  This is a musical, but not the bombast and sets one normally expects.  Instead, Once is a simple love story set in Ireland with music constantly either being sung or placed in the background.  Once refers to the fact that one point in time, this was part of Hansard’s character’s life, and gladly, once in my life I was able to sit down and take part in viewing it.

Similar recommended titles: Almost Famous