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Grady Harp, December 21, 2007

Ad Lib

There is much to love about the quirky little film ONCE: it is honest, simple, transparent, and made with a low budget and lots of love. The leading characters are gentle people who happen to sing as well as act and the love story they create is a fragile little tale that remains in the air as a nice memory after the credits are past.

A Dublin busker (Glen Hansard) is a songwriter and singer who plies his music on the streets when his is not helping his warmly generous father (Bill Hodnett) in his vacuum repair shop: his songs reflect a ruptured love affair and are sensitively poignant. Along comes a Czech girl (Markéta Irglová) who sells flowers on the streets but is impressed enough with the lad's music to stop, listen, and even put ten cents in his case. The two strike up a friendship (the girl plays the piano in a music shop during lunch hour) and in time these two bruised people interact in the wavelength of their love of music. The lad meets the girl's daughter and mother (Danuse Ktrestova) - the father of the child is still in the Czech Republic -, they all become friends, and with the help of a few fellow musicians they cut a recording that hopefully will launch the lad's career in a trip to London. The mood of the extemporaneous feeling piece is one of developing love that can only happen once, especially given the histories of each of the two musicians.

Writer/director John Carney demonstrates how a simple story can be made into a touching film for under $150,000. and on a shooting schedule of 17 days. The featurettes have just as much tenderness in outlining the production of the film as the film itself. The only problem with the film for this viewer is the music, which seems redundant and repetitive: for those who favor this type of music this will not be a 'flaw'. It is admirable that films like this are being made, restoring our faith in honest craftsmanship backed by warmth of intent.
Grady Harp

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