One of my Favorite Films Released in 2007

Rating: 10/10 (28 January 2008)

You can say a lot about 2007 not being a great year. On the political side, the economy crumbled a bit, oil prices skyrocketed, New Orleans is still in a wreck, and the Democrats in office were unable to make progress because of President Bush's stubborn ways. With all this chaos in today's world, one turns to entertainment. However, scripted TV shows halted due to the writer's strike, and the music industry in spite of sagging CD sales had not been churning out particularly good new music. Fortunately, after a creative slump, movies are the one medium that are bouncing back. "Once" is no exception.
I went to see this film on a whim earlier last year when it was playing at an nearby independent theater. It had gotten a pretty good review from Peter Travers of Rolling Stone Magazine, so I admittedly went in with expectation that the movie would be good.
Fortunately, it was good, but in a different way than I could have imagined. I didn't expect a musical of sorts, and I got an unconventional one filled with original and awe-inspiring songs. It sounds very hackneyed when I write this, but the music was truly moving, especially the song "Falling Slowly" which has fortunately been recently nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Song.
The storyline was also intriguing, and the dialogue was pretty good considering most of it was improvised. The ending, which I won't give away, was just the right touch for this film, and the replay of the song "Falling Slowly" could not have fit better into the end sequence.
It's a fault of the MPAA that this film was rated R. It really shouldn't have been. There was absolutely no violence, no nudity, and most importantly, a heart-warming story that people of all ages should be exposed to. If anything, the film should have been rated PG-13. It's just another example of the MPAA's flawed and inefficient rating system. Don't let the few F-word's in this movie fool you. If you have kids, and they want to see this movie, let them! Period.