Once

Glen Hansard plays an unnamed street performer in Dublin. Markéta Irglová plays an unnamed Czech immigrant flower girl who takes an interest in him on a lonely night. He's getting over a girl. She's fascinated with him and soon they're making beautiful music together.

There is something magical about discovering two unknowns (Hansard is known in his country) in a sweet under-written romance. It never pushes hard. Markéta is utterly sweet. The romance is hesitant. The music is beautiful. In a world of big bombastic high budget Broadway style musicals, this indie musical has more heart than most of them could hope for.

Watching "Once" is like sitting in on a jam session. It's mellow and relaxed. It doesn't amount to much, but it's pleasant enough.

The director has said that he set out to make a movie so simple that the story could be summarized on the back of a postage stamp, and he's succeeded. An Irish busker meets a Czech émigré, and both flit around the edges of falling for each other while recording a demo album of the busker's music. Both are struggling with the loves in their lives, he with a girlfriend in London, she with her estranged husband and father to her little girl. The resolution of their stories, what resolution there is, felt right and realistic. This isn't a fairy tale, but neither is it Shakespearean tragedy. Life simply goes on.

The film's biggest asset is its music, and indeed most of the songs in the film we see performed in their entirety. The movie isn't exactly a musical in the strictest sense of the word, since characters don't spontaneously burst into choreographed musical numbers, but like the best musicals, the songs in "Once" illuminate the characters and play an integral role in the storytelling.

A low-key little gem of a movie.

Grade: A

This is a wonderful, fun and touching movie. At a screening at Sundance 2007 the director described it as a musical, and it really is. The primary actors are musicians and their songs tie the movie together and tie you to them. Although the primary cast aren't actors as a first profession, they are very natural together and the film flows very well because of it. Everyone involved in this film has a great passion for music, and it is very infectious. It is one of the few films I have seen in 7 years at Sundance that received a standing ovation.

From the Sundance film guide: "A Dublin busker, who ekes out a living playing guitar and repairing vacuum cleaners for his dad's shop, meets a young Czech immigrant who sells roses on the same street. She likes his song, and what's more…she has a broken vacuum cleaner! They soon find themselves playing music together in a nearby music store (since she can't afford a piano, the owner lets her play his floor models). Over the course of a week, they form a musical rapport and, newly inspired, decide to record an album.

Once may loosely be classified as a musical, but it has a refreshing vérité inflection. Conceived by director John Carney as a "video album," it sports a scrappy, unembellished naturalism. Carney took a risk in choosing professional musicians over professional actors, but Glen Hansard (of the well-known Irish band the Frames) and Marketa Irglova (a Czech singer/songwriter) are not only remarkably charming together but they're equally adept with the more melancholy shades (Hansard's lonely soul, stuck on an old flame; Irglova struggling to support a mother and daughter). Burdened and brokenhearted, their musical bond is the heart of the film and of their love.

Great music aside, what makes this film special is how little effort it seems to exert. If it's possible to be blindsided by simplicity--a light touch, Once does it." — John Nein

I too saw this film at Sundance, and we were treated to a live performance afterwards by the two main characters, who are actual musicians and not actors.

I can't say enough good things about this film. It is bittersweet and romantic, with great music (not Irish music, but the singer/songwriter type) as the two main characters collaborate on their songs and help each other become stronger and face the romantic challenges they both are suffering from. The end of the film is wonderful and Hollywood-cliché-free! I hope this film gets the distribution it deserves, because I'm going to be telling everyone to see it.

ONCE is a film to see and cherish for the magic of song and music combined in the setting of Dublin for a young man and woman who meet and who make wonderful music together. The only issue is she's married to a bloke in another country. But that doesn't stop them for creating a wonderful piece of music which will stay with them forever.

John Carney has directed and written a brilliant film which tags at your heart and makes your feet dance all at the same time. "Guy and Girl" are tremendous in their parts and the humor and passion they bring to their music. Dublin is such a great location for this film and it resembles London in so many of its blocks of buildings. The bond is also wonderful to see between father and son and the encouragement which the father gives his son.

ONCE gives you a time in your life when you meet your soul mate who brings the music to your heart you have always dreamed of...as well as a Hoover vacuum-"who knew?" See ONCE, because "once" you do, you may come back for more.