If you like the songs, you'll have fun

Rating: 5/10 (24 February 2008)

I just watched Once and, to be honest, I was disappointed. It's not that I think the songs were too shallow or that I was expecting something along the lines of musicals like Dreamgirls - I just felt like the story was going nowhere, and although I quite liked the ending, I didn't fall in love with the film. I think that in this case you have to love the music to love the film, and these just aren't the kind of songs I go for. Also, I like watching actors in films. I'm not saying that they should've cast Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt, just that maybe I would've liked it better if they had cast actors that could sing (like in Across the Universe) instead of musicians that try to act. I've seen far worse, and I can totally see why people like the two leads, but then they've just got different taste in what they value most in a film. As to the simplicity of the story, I agree that it's fitting and works most of the time, but that one scene at the bank seemed very out of place to me. Once really plays like a feature-length music video, so if you would like to watch these two musicians performing a few songs with a nice little story around that, go for it, I'm sure you'll have fun.