Heart-warming but not that special

Rating: Null/10 (1 July 2013)

Films do not come much 'smaller than this 2006 offering, written and directed by the Irish John Carney and shot in Dublin with a skeleton crew in a mere 17 days on a couple of shaky camcorders. It looks dark and fuzzy and amateurish, but it has a soul, thanks largely to the warmth of the two central characters, played by the Irish Glen Hansard and the Czech Markéta Irglová, both chosen for their musical skills and not for any acting ability.
The story is very slight but life-affirming: Hansard's Guy (he is not named) getting round to recording an album one weekend - instead of delaying the project, as so many musicians do, to 'once' something or other has been done - with the support of the much younger Girl (who is also not named), in the process finding a powerful bond. Hansard and Irglová wrote and performed all the new songs.
I did not catch the film until seven years after its release by which time it had become something of a phenomenon, winning an Academy Award for Best Song and forming the basis of an award-winning musical. I'm not sure it's really that special, but it is is always good to see a poorly-funded movie make a breakthrough and it is a heart- warming little treat.