This has great songs, beautiful romance, and is just a really great film overall...

Rating: 8/10 (4 June 2014)

When a movie has a minuscule budget, often sacrifices have to be made which can change the overall look or feel of the film. Things like special lighting and special effects are kept to a minimum, while locations are very simplistic. And often, this can be an extremely positive thing for a film, adding to its charm because of its simplistic nature. This is precisely one of the things which make "Once" such a charming and wonderful movie – the constant realism which flows throughout the film. It's got great songs, beautiful romance and is just a really great film overall.
When the 'Guy' (Glen Hansard) is out busking one day, he meets and gets talking to the 'Girl' (Markéta Irglová), a Czech flower seller. There is clear chemistry between the two, and they meet again the next day and play music together. The nature of their relationship is always kept at a distance, since the Girl is married but her husband lives in the Czech Republic, and the Guy wants to get back together with his ex-girlfriend in London. Therefore, the two, along with a band of buskers, record a demo album so that the Guy can show it to the ex-girlfriend when he meets her. The ending is both incredibly daring and very satisfying, not falling back on classic Hollywood romance clichés.
However, plot in "Once" is not as important as the songs which feature throughout, a mixture of ballads and folk songs. "Falling Slowly", the film's main song which ended up winning an Academy Award, is a beautiful song, and its context within the movie is both simple and beautiful. The songs are all played naturally in the film, with one exception in "If You Want Me", a heartbreaking love song which the Girl sings with headphones in while walking down the street, and with the singing voice of the Guy played in the background. It's a bit more like a music video in that scene, but it's well shot and a brief moment of suspending the audience's disbelief.
The two leads are not professional actors, and neither are the majority of the supporting cast, but this merely adds to the naturalism which the film exudes. Director John Carney shoots it in a very natural way too, saving up any fancy camera-work until the very end. The film is brief, with a running time of only 86 minutes, but it fills that whole time with interest and never feels slow. Ultimately, "Once" is a beautiful and heartbreaking love story, with songs that you won't be able to get out of your head for weeks afterwards.