A highly natural, honest and charming romantic drama

Rating: 10/10 (23 January 2010)

Director/writer John Carney has crafted an exceptional film with "Once". Simply put: "Once" feels real.
Photographed in and around Dublin, Ireland, on a low budget, using hand held cameras, the film has a private documentary look and feel to it. "Once" is loaded with naturalness, sincerity, spontaneity, honesty and charm. It's one of the best films of the decade, outperforming most big budget Hollywood films with famous actors. This film is evidence that an inspired director and writer, are far more important to the success of a film, than the traditional Hollywood formula of big budgets and famous actors. By success, my meaning is, the film tells it's story very convincingly.
The story concerns a chance encounter between two musicians and follows them on their eventful weekend that follows. The two main character, identified only as guy and girl, are portrayed by two real life musicians. "Once" contains some genuinely beautiful original music and songs.
For me, there are really three key scenes, that help lift this film from lesser efforts of the genre. One, is the performance of the beautiful song "Falling Slowly" in the music store. Second, has the girl walking home at night with fresh batteries, listening to and singing to one of the guy's songs on the portable CD player he gave her. Third, would be the guy creating a new guitar song, while watching home movies of his ex- love, for inspiration. The ending of the film is brave for this genre and fits perfectly with the story telling style of the film.
Though deserving of more than one Academy Award nomination, "Once" is the not the usual choice of Academy voters (big budget, famous actors, epic story) for Best Picture.
About the R rating for the film. The f-word is used throughout the film., however, it's never used in a vulgar, aggressive or insulting manner. It's obviously the common language style of the common people portrayed in the film. Considering the context of the story and characters, I believe an R rating is unjustified. That's unfortunate for a low budget film like this, which needs to play in as many theaters as possible. R rated films earn less than PG or PG-13 films.
Highly recommended.