Nice songs in an artsy movie

Rating: 7/10 (12 September 2014)

The movie tells of Dan, a once-was-someone music producer, and Gretta, a rising star musician's ex-girlfriend and partner; who meet at a local live music pub when Dan hears Gretta performs. Drunk, distasteful of the current popular music, and losing his job after a dispute at his label, Dan hasn't been a good example for his daughter Violet. After following her ex Dave to New York, Gretta is disappointed because he cheats on her. After their acquaintance at the pub, Dan asks the reluctant Gretta to do a recording.
Yielding, Gretta follows Dan to do a low budget, indie recording of her songs in open air locations. She befriends Violet and gets closer to Dan. After seeing Dave won an award, Gretta sends him a song, which prompts him to contact her again. The recording done, Dan and Gretta pitches it to Dan's old label, which likes it very much. Dan gets his old job back but Gretta refuses the deal with the label. Gretta comes to a concert Dave invited her to, but she's once again disappointed when Dave sings her song to the crowd. She then goes to Dan and they release her album via the internet.
The movie's story down plays two people's low points of their lives, yet it also cover their joint creative revival process. Begin Again (2013) is one of those movies that doesn't really focus on the story that much. Rather, it aims the focus to feel artsy without being kind of weird. It doesn't present a complicated story even though it introduces enough number of characters and relationships between them that enables such a complex story.
The music is easy listening, with songs performed without lip sync. The songs' lyrics also feels not very heavy despite the themes and the use of some explicit words in them. The music feels nice because despite being light, it contains enough instrument sounds varied enough to feel like a band.
The movie feels artsy by using the little bit darkened coloration all around and shooting the recording scenes on common yet unusual locations. It also very nice to have a real musician take an acting part here. Even more, it's nice to see an actress take on the songs herself, instead of using lip syncs like most musicals do.I also like how the movie stills plays when the end credits roll in even showing the ending part with it. It makes the movie feels like a news TV show. The costumes and make up are also nice to see, simple enough yet quite helpful in depicting the characters' personality.
The acting department feels adequate enough. Kiera Knightley did well enough in portraying the betrayed ex-girlfriend with high potential talent. Mark Ruffalo did great in getting into his character. He gets the right body language improvised on the recording scenes. Having Adam Levine is nice for his voice on the songs, despite his acting is not that good. Hailee Steinfeld gives this movie a nicer touch; too bad that her character's conflict is really resolved. Having experienced names as Catherine Keener and Yasiin Bey, or a.k.a Mos Def, is also nice touches.
My opinion is that Begin Again (2013) deserves a 7 out of 10 score. It's quite an entertainment from a movie perspective. But it offers more on the music side.