Review of "Once"

It was Cervantes who said that ‘he who sings frightens away his woes’, and that is what Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova do in this tender and poignant love story, studded with heartbreaking ballads from beginning to end.

Hansard and Irglova play two unnamed musicians living on the cheap in present day Ireland. He’s a vacuum repairman by day and a busker by night, singing his heart out and trying to forget his girlfriend who’s left for England. Irglova plays a Czech migrant living with her mother in a dingy flat, and selling flowers on the street to pay the bills. Although she is a pianist, she can only play for an hour at lunchtime when the owner of a friendly music shop lets her sit at one of the pianos. These two characters cross paths in the busy malls of Dublin and slowly discover each other, and each other’s existing obligations, through their music.

Despite the badly lit handheld photography (it gets very poor in night-time interior scenes) it’s hard not to be moved by the touching nature of the story, the delightful balance of Hansard’s tortured guy and Irglova’s free-spirited girl, and of course the music; mostly instrumental power ballads with a bit of Mendelssohn piano thrown in for extra depth. (And watch out for the wonderful song “Broken Hearted Hoover Fixer Sucker Guy” that Hansard sings on the bus to explain his situation to his new friend).

Hansard’s music credentials are impeccable: he’s the lead singer of the Irish band The Frames, and also starred as the guitarist in that other film about Irish musicians The Commitments (although that’s where the similarities end). He and Irglova wrote just about all the music for the film and the real aching moments in the story happen when they are playing for each other - singing away their woes while the other looks on.

Writer and director John Carney made the film on a shoestring budget and the writing is strong enough to withstand the many shortcuts taken to get the story to the screen. There’s a wonderful honesty about everything here – the performances, the lingering realism of the camera work and most importantly the direction the story takes once it’s underway.