Close to Perfect

Rating: 9/10 (11 July 2007)

Who would have thought? Out of all of the movies to come out this summer, the one with the least amount of special effects (make that no special effects), the one with no A-list actors, the one with a director I, and I would venture to guess that many others had never heard of, would be the best movie of the summer, and quite possibly the whole year. I am not exaggerating. This is not hyperbole here. "Once" is as about as close to perfect as you can get. The story is simple, and yet it is the simplicity that makes it so good. The actors actually seem like real people. This is the type of movie that almost anyone can relate to. All of us have had that one relationship in life, where if it had only been another place, or perhaps another time, things would have worked out perfectly. All of us have had those experiences in life where we know that we just had one of the best times of our lives, with someone that we really connected with, and yet we know that the time will not live on, and the person will go out of our lives just as quickly as they came in. "Once" captures that realness almost perfectly. It is the type of movie that will make you feel better about people. And it may just make you feel better about yourself.