Feature Movie of the Week: Once

How often do you find the right person?

Once.

Once is a beautiful little film written and directed by John Carney. Set in Dublin, Ireland, it follows the story of two characters, aptly named the girl (Marketa Irglova) and the guy (Glen Hansard), who meet when the guy is busking and the girl is selling The Big Issue on the street. 

I would say it’s probably one of the most charming love stories I’ve ever witnessed on the screen, but in comparison to conventional love stories this film doesn’t really go anywhere, but of course I mean this in a positive way. 

The tagline on the DVD case read “How often do you meet that one special person…once”  so I figured it would be a cute indie love story about these two people who come together and make music and fall in love, which is sort of what happens, but there’s so much more to this film than what I was expecting.

Get ready for some major movie nerd theory right now:

Ultimately, (SPOILER ALERT) the guy and the girl do not end up together as the guy goes to London to get back together with his ex-girlfriend and the girl's husband moves to Dublin to be with her. So at first I was confused, the tagline says you only find the right person once, but if the guy and girl are the right people for each other, why didn't they end up together? This got me thinking, perhaps the statement "How often do you find the right person? Once" is not referring to the guy and girls relationship, rather it is saying that they have both already met the right person, his girlfriend and her husband. My theory is that it could be inferring that whilst they did have a strong connection with each other, ultimately you only find the right person once, and they had already found them in their respective partners and therefore were not meant to be together.

Movie nerd theory over.

The music is spectacular, the performances are incredibly natural and believable and the chemistry between the two leads is something that could not have been faked by the best actors in the world. Made on a shoestring budget and filmed like a home movie, Once is a film that proves that it is not money, experience or scale that creates a great film, but passion, talent and a whole lot of heart. 

 Standout Performances

• Glen Hansard- A charming Irishman who, whilst not having a lot of acting experience, manages to play the guy with ease and confidence. It is an incredibly natural performance that is a joy to watch.
• Marketa Irglova- The fact that she was only 17 years old when they shot Once is absolutely unbelievable because she plays the girl with such maturity and poise. She is a very adorable character with equal parts innocence and wisdom and Irglova makes it easy for the audience to fall in love with her.

Memorable Scenes

 

 

• What makes this scene above so beautiful is that, unbeknownst to both the guy and the audience (unless of course you speak Czech), the girls response "Miluju tebe" translates to "I love you", which Irglova improvised so that even Hansard himself didn't know what she said. 
• When the guy and the girl meet for the first time, after he finishes one of his songs and she gives him 10 cents, this overly personal, awkward, but very charming exchange takes place:

Girl: Who did you write this song for? Please

 Guy: No one

Girl: Bullshit, where is she?

Guy: She's gone

Girl: She's dead?

Guy: No she's not dead, she's gone

Girl: You love her still?

Guy: Jesus man! No

Girl: You're over her? Rubbish, no one who writes a song like this is over her, I'm telling you, you play this song to her, you get her back

Guy: I don't want her back

Girl: I see

Music Moments

•  Falling Slowly- Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova

Seeing as this film is a musical there is bound to be some overlap with the memorable scenes and music moments, but this scene in particular would have to be my favourite in the whole film. I would say at about 10 seconds into the song was when I fell in love with this film. 

• When You're Mind's Made Up- Glen Hansard, Marketa Irglova & the band

I love the sound technicians reaction when he realises they are actually good, TAKE THAT FOR BEING JUDGEMENTAL!

•  Say it to me now- Glen Hansard