Touching, not easily forgettable

Rating: 9/10 (31 December 2007)

Oh, what a charming film.
I saw this in the theater and was, at first, very put off by the general grainy and shaky look to it; such a large visual difference to the standard Hollywood fare. But this is no Hollywood film in the first place, and any of the reservations I had for this movie were pushed away rather quickly. This movie isn't Hollywood at all; it is raw and very real, and heart wrenchingly beautiful.
However much the movie is about creating music (the music here is not for the majority, but I enjoyed it immensely), it's also very much about finding a soul mate. There's a certain magic and intensity about those aspects and they're done incredibly well.
Sometimes, I'm often put off by "indie" movies, as this one is. The pretentiousness, mainly. But Once is not even close to that. There is nothing self conscious about this movie in the least.