Once

{4/5} “During the daytime people would want to hear songs that they know, just songs that they recognize. I play these songs at night or I wouldn’t make any money. People wouldn’t listen.”

A man and a woman bond over music — he plays the guitar and she plays the piano, and they both sing. The man works in his father’s vacuum shop during the day and busks at night. The woman is an immigrant, has a young daughter, and sells flowers. How far can they go with the music they make together? Can they get past their previous relationships in order to form a new one?

Once was released in 2006.

It’s a low-key movie with characters who are regular people.

It’s not a Hollywood movie, so it might not have a Hollywood ending.

There are some funny parts — for example, the song “Broken Hearted Hoover Fixer Sucker Guy.”

You might be more apt to enjoy the movie if you have an interest in music making.

There’s not much plot, but the music is great and the couple is believable.

Glen Hansard (The Commitments) plays the man and Markéta Irglová (her first movie) plays the woman — the characters are unnamed. The two of them wrote and sang the music in the movie. They also together form the folk rock duo The Swell Season.

The movie was directed by John Carney (On the Edge).

This entry was posted on Friday, January 3rd, 2014 at 9:52 pm and is filed under Reviews of movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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