Once
It’s been a few weeks since I watched it, so read this with a handful of salt, but I just felt compelled. It’s one of the most original movies I’ve seen in a really long time, sentimental in all the right ways, wistful of a love that we have all wanted and reached for if not fully arrived at, and creative of a world in which song is the heart and soul of each human and the humanity that is both enriching and beautiful in all of us if we are able to seek it, to desire, to develop it.
Once is a movie about a guy who plays the guitar and sings. He meets a girl who plays the piano and sings. They kind of fall for each other. They realize they can’t be together. But still they play. Music, that is. And their hearts grow more connected daily. They spend every waking moment together, writing music, singing music, and eventually, recording that music. They each have a storied relationship past, and they sing it poignantly and romantically without ever feeling or sounding even remotely kitschy, a word I have had to use far too often with movies recently.
The astonishing thing about this movie is that it never really pursues a certain plot, only the essential qualities of the lives of the characters it reveals to us, relentlessly and honestly. The plot, if there must be one, is just that: the inner life of each character. The music is so wonderful, and there were a few songs that brought me near tears, just to hear them sing it.
If I could take one album with me on a deserted island, it might be this one. It would keep me going, keep me hoping, keep me living, I think. As an added bonus, it would remind me of Once. Which would be completely worth it.
Rating: 3.5/4 Stars
Once makes me feel like actors are so unnecessary…whoopsies.