Wonderfully Peaceful

Rating: 8/10 (15 May 2011)

This is a movie that just seems like.......real life. The music is very folksy and down to earth, and so is the story. And then learning that the actors are the actual band members almost makes this documentary-like.
Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova make for a very nice couple of friends, and they have the on-screen chemistry together to make you think there just might be something more..... Any typical film would have had these two pairing up by the end and making out somewhere in the middle, but Once really is one of those films that comes around once in a long while in how realistic it is. At the end, Glen doesn't even get a chance to bid farewell to her, and ends up buying her a dream gift -- the piano she'd played all the time in that music shop. The two remain friends by unspoken rule. How great is it that the male lead doesn't get the girl in the end?! What a breath of fresh air this is.....this plot and all the wonderful scenery we're also treated to.
This must be the only Irish movie I can ever remember having seen. And impressively, they made it one that I'll never forget.