Dublin busker (Glen Hansard) meets Czech immigrant (Marketa Irglova), and together, they record an album. Hansard’s character is broke, heartbroken and living with his dad, and Irglova’s character is broke, estranged from her husband, and raising a young daughter. Initially, one might expect the arc of this movie to follow the typical growth of a romance between two people, but instead, the arc is a love story about the artistic process. From initial uncertainty, through growing excitement, to total immersion, to the resulting opened possibilities and new, refreshed outlook on life: the story will be familiar to anyone who has been carried away by an idea and created something, however inconsequential. The film illustrates how the creative process can rejuvinate and rebuild a life, but this is not an idealistic or larger-than-life movie. Rather, Once feels real and honest, as do the original songs, written and performed by Hansard and Irglova.
I’ve Been Watching: Once
3 Comments to “I’ve Been Watching: Once”
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I loved this movie, in fact the day i bought it I watched it 3 times
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What a great movie, but I thought it was awfully sad, too. Movingly, intelligently, approiately sad that they didn’t get together in the end. Sad in a morally serious fashion, but still sad.
Glad you wrote this. Challenges my memory of it and makes me want to see it again.
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It was sad, but it wasn’t overwrought. I think their situation had more to do with practicality than with morality, which is also why it felt so true to life. So many movies (and not even just rom coms) focus on a single love affair as this central, ever-lasting thing, the end of which might as well be terminal to the characters in every respect. But many (most?) people fall in love more than
onceone time.
