Second Chances

Rating: Null/10 (19 January 2015)

A cute film by writer-director John Carney, "Begin Again" stars Keira Knightley as Gretta, a young singer-songwriter who has recently been dumped by her boyfriend. Echoing Gretta's plight is Dan (Mark Ruffalo), a middle-aged record producer who has recently been fired by his production company. Deciding to put their pasts behind them, Dan and Gretta "begin again"; they work together to produce a new music album.
Before it pushes toward a generic climax, "Begin Again" delivers at least one great sequence. Here an intoxicated Dan watches as Gretta performs a song at a bar's open mic. As Gretta sings, Dan imagines the unattended instruments around her coming to life, layers and layers of sounds being added to her naked vocals. This magical moment marks the start of the couple's romance, but it's a romance which Dan never lets advance beyond the recording room. He's primarily infatuated with Gretta's voice, her love of music, and the future album that gestates within her.
Music has long housed and shaped our fantasies. Contemporary music itself largely exists to market sex. In "Begin Again", like Carney's own 2007 feature, "Once", music reignites dying passions, and reinvigorates a pair of lost-souls. By the film's climax, Dan has restored his derailed life, Gretta has pushed past heart-ache and the duo have created a hit music album. An attempt to be "raw", "truthful" and "authentic", this album is recorded in "real world locations", amidst the noisy clatter of pedestrians and traffic. The glossy aesthetic of Carney's film, the content of his script, and his heavy use of lip-syncing, betray the premise of the couple's album.
8/10 – See "Once" and "Before Sunrise".