A film you MUST watch, and probably can't watch just "Once"

Rating: 10/10 (9 January 2008)

I watch movies. A lot of movies. Sadly, most end up not being worth the time it took to lift them off the shelf at Hollywood Video to read the back cover. However, when you basically shotgun the video store, a few golden needles are bound to ring out beautifully as they fall to the floor from the haystack.
The most recent gem for me was the film "Once". Set in beautiful Dublin, Ireland, complete with the delightful and endearing (though sometimes hard to understand) Irish brogue, this film pulls you in from the start. The two main characters remain unnamed through the movie (they are credited simply as "Guy" and "Girl"). Guy is a charmingly scruffy "broken hearted Hoover fixer sucker guy" (his "day job" finds him working in his father's vacuum repair shop), though his true passion lies in singer/songwriter/acoustic music. We meet him right off the bat, out in the streets, guitar case open, playing his well worn, and beloved guitar, hoping to earn a few extra Euro. During the days, he plays covers in busy pedestrian areas because it gets him more money, but at night he lets the magic of his own writing echo down the alleys of Dublin. It is while Guy is playing at night that we first meet Girl. Guy has been playing to an empty street, his enchanting songs falling on brick and stone. Yet, while caught up in the moment of one of his songs, his eyes closed, Girl appears, applauding as he finishes the song. She is beautiful, captivating, quirky, frumpily dressed and the viewer can't help but fall for her blended Czech and Irish accents that flow from her lips like a song. When she discovers that Guy fixes vacuums, she begs him to fix hers. He tells her to bring it with her tomorrow, and find him on the street with it. Sure enough, she shows up the next day, dragging her vacuum (one of those with the little unit on the floor and the long hose that you hold, rather than an upright vacuum) like a little puppy along the street.
I'll not give away much more of the plot, other than to say that what ensues is a week or so of time spent together, Guy and Girl quit clearly perfect for each other, each wanting the other, but held back by their own broken pasts and the knowledge of the other's broken pasts. Their haphazard, awkward and yet lovable romance is really kindled through music. Guy and his guitar capture her heart, while Girl, who's father was in a Czech orchestra, plays piano masterfully and has a voice (much like that of Amy Lee, from Evanescence) that is haunting yet beautiful, and leaves Guy speechless when she first plays and sings for him.
During their week together, they sing, play, write and record music together, both for the joy of the experience, and in hopes of actualizing Guy's desires to get beyond fixing Hoovers, and make it in the music world. This pursuit is vital to the development of Guy and Girl's relationship. Additionally, though it takes up much less of the overall film, this pursuit is vital to the restoration of the relationship between Guy and his father. As is so common these days, Guy seems to feel a disconnect with his father, who frowns on his musical efforts. However, in a brief, but very powerful scene, Guy receives the much desired and needed strong affirmation of his father.
"Once" is captivating in all ways. Dublin is the perfect beautiful setting, the characters tangible, believable, magnetic, the story well told. Everything about it has a genuine, earthy feel...the viewer can relate and is really drawn into the film. And the music...oh the music! It is fantastic! It's funny at times, serious at others, broken hearted, full of love, full of life and tells so much of the story. The music is the best part (so much so that as soon as I finished watching the movie, I went back to my room, hopped on the iTunes store, and bought the soundtrack, and its all I've listened to for the last three days since I've watched the film). Believe me when I say, "Once" is a film you don't want to miss, and one you probably can't watch just once...