Once

We only get so many chances in life: chances to fall in love, create great art or if we are lucky the chance to do both at once. This is the theme throughout all of 'Once' the new indie-musical from Irish filmmaker John Carney. Carney is no stranger to music; he was once a member of The Frames, a very popular Irish rock group.'Once' tells the story of a Dublin street busker or street musician named simply 'Guy'. 'Guy' is played by Glen Hansaard the long time front man for the Frames He works at his dad's vacuum shop during the day and buskes at night to make some extra money. One day while on the street singing 'Guy' meets 'Girl'(cute huh?) , played by Markéta Irglová and an interesting relationship develops between the two of them. She is a Chekelozvakian immigrant who cleans houses for a living and is also quite the musician herself. There first musical collaboration is a beautiful scene of the two of them playing one of his songs in a music shop where the sho owner allows her to use the in-store pianos whenever she wants.

There is so much that is good about this film that it is hard to list them all here or to know where to start. It is a musical but not in any traditional sense that you could recognize. The term itself conjures up thoughts of absurd musical numbers occuring in the middle of church, or dinner, or while on the way to school with your friends. In 'Once' all of the music emerges organically from our main characters as they play each other songs they've written or as they practice on their own.

The chemistry between the two leads is also quite palpable, but it never veers off into predictalbe territory. Upon first hearing Guy's song Girl asks him who he wrote them for, knowing full well that emotion such as that is only born out of heartbreak or despair. As it turns out he wrote thom for an ex who now lives in London and he has yet to gather up the courage to go get her back. Girl has an equally complicated story, having moved to Dublin with her little girl and mother so that they could have a better life outside of the Chzek Republic. She is also married, although she claims that she doesn't care for the relationship anymore. When not performing music together the two shares scenes of sometimes great sweetness but at other times incredible awkwardness. It is clear that they like each other but this is too good of a film to go for easy satisfaction and it knows that in life things don't always play out as you would think or as you would wish.

In the end what makes this film so great to watch is the power of the music and how it fits seemlessly into the story. Hansard is more than capable of carrying the film and Irglová is every bit his equal on screen. It should also be noted that this film was made for a piltry $100,000. The idea that a film of this caliber can be made for that kind of money speaks to the passion of the filmmaker and the absolute vision he must have had for this from the very beginning. It was shot on grainy digital and the beginning cinematography is nothing special, but by the time you're 10-15 minutes into the story you forget how low budget it all is as you become wrapped up completely in the story and the stakes of these people's lives.

This is a film about taking chances. Guy could easily have just continued on busking and working at his father's shop and in all honesty he may very well continue to do that, we aren't given an answer at the end. But he does take a chance. In a hilarious scene he and Irglová go to the bank to get a loan to help pay for studio costs. Once the loan officer discovers that they are musicians he cant resist but to play one of his own songs much to the two's chagrin. This helps them get the money they need to take a chance, a chance at not accepting the life you have when you know you could have a better one. Those kinds of chances happen once in a lifetime.


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