Once Was Enough

Rating: 3/10 (30 January 2015)

You can get so far ahead of this picture, you may have to go to the corner for snacks and back to let it catch up. If you don't see a plot development coming, they will sing a song about it. Don't worry. I have a soft spot for movies about music and musicians who triumph although the music is undeniably terrible. And it is. Keira Knightley, I assume, does her own whispery, little girl singing and the acting is in the mumble, behavioral style which is sure-fire to glaze your interest in most any of the characters. We are told much was improvised. Much like the music that was not written because no one here reads music or can compose. Songs are "written" in diaries or on crumpled pieces of paper lending them "authenticity" in this type of sing spiel. Mark Ruffalo gives the film some weight and humor, as he always does, but he's wasted in this less than middle-brow pawn to the pop music industry. Knightley looks anorexic and actually seems to lose weight during the film and developed a prominent under bite by the end. James Corden has enough to do to show he could be a major film actor with the right script. Cinematography shows New York's lower east side at its seediest. Catherine Keener, as fine an actress in films as there is, gets the thankless ex role.