Finally, Once

I've said before that I've always loved movies about music. This was the main reason I've always wanted to see this film, as I've fallen in love with the soundtrack ever since I heard the Academy Award-winning Falling Slowly last year.

But I'm also a fan of movies that make me cry (and this one made me weep at the very end, unexpectedly), those that end happily without the cliche grand gestures (well, there was a piano, but it wasn't a grand piano, was it?), the ones that exercise restraint (not a-one kiss!) and those that keep it real... and remind us that there are these special people meant to touch our lives briefly but immensely but maybe never meant to stay.


Once was all that - two lovelorn people, struggling musicians alike, meeting, making music and never getting to say goodbye - a vignette that succeeds in its very simplicity. The music (written and performed by the two lead actors) is cast as a character in its own right - the subtle narrator/thought bubble of the leads' struggles and histories.

Plus, Glen Hansard looks like a younger version of Hugh Laurie (with some Peter Krause and Kenneth Branagh bits thrown in), one more bonus point for me.

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* Image courtesy of Wikipedia