Once

Once
by John Carney

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DVD details

Actor: Danuse Ktrestova, Glen Hansard, Leslie Murphy (II), Mark?ta Irglov?, Senan Haugh
Director: John Carney
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language); Czech (Original Language); Spanish (Dubbed)
Format: Color, Dubbed, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 86 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-12-18
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: 20th Century Fox

DVD Reviews of Once

DVD Review: refreshing
Summary: 5 Stars

It's so hard to find a movie that both my teen-age/young adult children love, too ! We enjoyed the music and the relationship between the main characters........not your predictable outcome.

DVD Review: A treat!
Summary: 5 Stars

From the hilarious opening scene, which is quintessential Irish humor, this movie delivers. I love the characters, I love the music, I love the feeling of being in Dublin (not the romanticized tourist Dublin, and not the bleak anti-romantic Dublin, but the real Dublin as it is today). The ending is a delightful surprise, and the movie has leaped ahead to my all-time favorites!

DVD Review: Simple, heartfelt. I love these characters. A lot.
Summary: 5 Stars

I did not have high hopes for this film. It is mercifully short (85 minutes), which almost merits a star by itself -- filmmakers today cannot just tell a story and be done with it. They think they must add layers and drag it on for over two hours.

The movie opens on a street corner somewhere in Ireland. A guy with a guitar is playing his modern folk tunes (what we'd now call "indie music") with his guitar case open for tips and contributions. After an altercation with a druggie who tries to steal his guitar case, cut to the nighttime, when he is wailing out a very personal song of woe, strumming loudly and emphatically. A young woman walks up and throws ten pence in his case, asking him if he wrote the song. An acquaintance is struck -- she is a Czehk immigrant who sells flowers on the street and does domestic cleaning. He's a vacuum cleaner repair man by day, working in his Dad's shop. But they both love to sing/play music, and dabble in writing it. Over the course of a couple of weeks, they work together to flesh out some songs he's written and record them, as the guy starts moving seriously toward trying to make it in the music biz.

This film is one of the most charming things I've seen in years. It is a small film, a simple story about simple people with dreams, struggling with heartache and poor circumstances, who create something together, and in the process learn a bit about themselves and find a sudden, new, and deep friendship and love. It is amazing how authentic and real it comes off, amazing because this was a tiny movie, probably shot on video instead of film, cheap to make, with unknown actors. Yet Hollywood cannot seem to make a film that takes the audience into a friendship with living, breathing, real characters that you can't help but have immense affection for by the time the final credits roll. I can't say it never happens, but usually I'm painfully aware of contrivances and manipulations, poorly disguised.

The central theme of the movie, the core around which everything revolves, is The Guy's songwriting and The Girl's collaboration with him in creating and performing it to make a demo recording. It is not really my kind of music. It is the music of simple feelings, performed by people who do not have perfect, trained voices. Forgive my Irish, but I'd call it "sad b*stard music," because it's about heartache and longing and misunderstanding and reaching out for connection and love. The melodies are sometimes pretty, but it's main virtue is that it is sincere, if not often very poetic (by my standards). The great thing about it is that you can believe that these characters could write these songs, because they aren't that sophisticated. (Unlike the recent August Rush, where a child who has never played an instrument suddenly becomes a performing and composing prodigy. Talk about a leap.)

And that's what stands out about this movie. Sincerity. Hard to find in a modern motion picture. I may not watch this multiple times, but I found it very moving, in a positive way.

There is some bad language, perhaps authentic, but totally unnecessary. This could easily be redubbed and turned into a PG or even a G film.

DVD Review: Quite Excellent, well worth watching more than once
Summary: 4 Stars

The cover quotes a prominent Chicago Tribune reviewer as saying this may well be the best music film of our generation. That alone made me expect it to suck. But guess what? I agree with the guy.

Now I can analyze why, or I can quote the back cover, or I can do both. But those words would probably make you less likely to watch this gem, not more. So I'm stopping.

I think it's excellent, like it says in my review title. And that's all I can say.

DVD Review: A true muscial in every sense!
Summary: 5 Stars

I loved this movie which is driven by fabulous words, music and relationships. The music and songs blended perfectly with the script and enhanced our emotions. I could feel the joy, pain and everything in between.
I was appreciative of the effort to develop and grow each participant for their own sakes. Boy and Girl did not end up together, which would have been very cliche, but ended up where they wanted and perhaps needed to be. What is wrong with that?
I loved the father/son interplay. Although a small part it was telling of the character of the boy and a big credit to the generosity of the father.
All in all, a great movie and proud to add it to my collection.

Description of Once

Winner of the World Audience Award at Sundance, Once starts out as a small-scale romance, like Before Sunrise, before arriving somewhere unexpected. An Irish busker (Glen Hansard, the Frames and The Commitments) meets a Czech flower seller (Mark?ta Irglov?) while singing on the streets of Dublin. (In the credits, they're listed as Guy and Girl.) She likes what she hears and lets him know. Turns out she's a musician, too. They work on a few songs together and a friendship is forged. She lives with her widowed mother, who doesn't speak English. He lives with his widowed father, who owns a repair shop. Since he broke up with his girlfriend, the guy has been drifting, unable and unwilling to get his life in order. The girl encourages him to pursue a record deal, and the guy emerges from his funk. Then he makes a move on the girl, who rejects his advances. He's confused, but as he comes to find, there's a reason she's keeping her distance. Though Once is filled with appealing folk-pop by Hansard and Irglov? (released on CD as The Swell Season), the movie isn't a traditional musical, but rather a more optimistic Brief Encounter. Filmmaker John Carney, Hansard's former bandmate, captures the real city--in all its affluence and poverty--rather than the picture postcard version. His beautifully shot film serves as a heartfelt ballad about all the underclass Guys and Girls swept aside amidst Ireland's economic miracle. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Beyond Once on DVD

Musicals on DVD
Once: The Soundtrack
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