It's not a film, it's a concert

Rating: 6/10 (20 March 2008)

WARNING: SPOILERS ALERT! Great music by Hansard which is moving and beautifully performed. Also nice natural non-acting by the two leads. Some decent use of locations and street lighting. However the story is paper-thin and wouldn't fill a half-hour slot on the TV. I don't want to sound too negative - it's thoroughly pleasant as a watching experience - but I was neither moved nor convinced by the story, such as it was. My main niggle apart from this was the incredibly unrealistic recording studio scene. More niggles: why did he need to go to the studio anyway? Why did he need a band? Other niggles: would her husband really have been happy about a gift of a piano from a strange man? If she wasn't interested in Guy, why was she flirting out of character so outrageously during the bike scene? Do people who sell the Big Issue really own their own vacuum cleaners? Having said all of the above I'd still love to be involved in a film like this. This sort of project (not necessarily with music) is the future of non-YankeeDoodle film-making - cheap, lovingly made, each element carefully chosen, simple story but complex emotions, letting the camera watch what happens rather than overdirecting. A micro-budget film-maker has many advantages over a Hollywood serf: time to think, no need to make or maintain star status: that's two for a start.