Once (2007) *

 

Directed by:  John Carney

Starring:  Glen Hansard, Marketa Irglova


Once is about two aspiring Dublin musicians who meet and fall in love despite being attached to others.    The girl (Irglova) is married, although this isn't made clear until later in the film, while the guy (Hansard) still pines for a lost love who has moved to London.     This sounds like the setup for a heartbreaking romance, but we're left with a dud.     A dud full of songs too, sung by the two leads.   One of those, "Falling Slowly", won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

Once didn't engage me in the slightest.    Even though Hansard and Irglova were romantically involved at the time of the filming, there is little chemistry between the two.    Since both were budding musicians, they played songs they wrote to each other.    I took the chance that these songs weren't going to dramatically enhance my viewing experience so I fast forwarded past them.     A friend of mine believed I missed out on a lot by doing this.   Perhaps I did, but it's something I can live with.     I doubt that my opinion on Once would've changed much by viewing these songs.

What's distracting about the movie is how the guy and girl are never referred to by their first names.   I'm sure they weren't born with the names "Guy" and "Girl".  (Guy is possible, but I think here the characters were deliberately anonymous).   Why the anonymity?  I can understand a minor role without a first name, but not the leads!!   This invites some awkward dialogue moments, such as when the guy knocks on the girl's door and asks her mother, "Is herself in?"    Exchanges between the two are twisted and convoluted to avoid referring to themselves by name.    I was reminded of Sex and the City, in which any attempt to refer to Mr. Big by his real name was either squashed or carefully interrupted.    Turns out his name after all was "John".   Wow!

What can I say about Once except that it didn't interest me and the two leads who occupy the majority of screen time just didn't click?    Not much else, so there's my review.