Awfully fake for a movie about authenticity

Rating: 1/10 (14 June 2015)

FINALLY gave in and watched the movie Begin Again. The soundtrack promised that it would be disappointing, but still I hoped for something that vaguely resembled Once... Alas, Begin Again is a movie that makes big claims about "real art" but understands "art" about as much as a shoe. The one thing it does have in common with Once is that Carney ripped the beginning line/melody of Hansard's "All the Way Down" ("you have broken...") in the song "Like a Fool." When I saw that they gave Glen Hansard some "writing credits," the only thing I could imagine is that they were forced to pay him retroactively for this line that they stole because Hansard's music has nothing in common with the music in this emotionless movie. Why is Knightley singing like a cute little bird even when she is supposed to be singing an "F- U" song to her ex? The whole movie made me extremely annoyed, though I wanted to like it - the beginning scene that felt forced (look a girl can play a guitar - isn't that super original?), the 0 chemistry between Ruffalo (a usually fantastic actor) and Knightley, the scattered plot with weirdly timed flashbacks, and the constant message that this movie was supposed to be about authenticity when it was decidedly fake!!! Don't bring in a Maroon 5 singer if you want real music. It boggles my mind that John Carney wrote this script after writing Once. The only explanation I have is that Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova provided the heart to Once whereas neither Ruffalo nor Knightley had the knack for music to do so for Begin Again.