Not Quite Awful

Rating: 4/10 (7 September 2007)

I was not amused, entranced or inspired by this amateurish presentation of whiny people singing whining songs; songs that all seem to include bar after bar of wordless screeching. The photography is distractingly bad, the sound (for a so-called musical) is mushy and lacks dynamic range, and the performances are somnolent. If you want an "Irish musical" with fire and characters about whom you can care, rent "The Commitments".
I don't know John Carney or Glen Hansard or any of the back-story to their relationship, and it shouldn't matter -- the film stands or falls on its own merits and in my opinion, it falls, with a whimper, not a bang. The characters don't grow or change, or come to mean any more to each other than they do to us.
Faint praise: I hope the image of a girl wandering the streets dragging her Hoover about by its hose was intended sexual humor.