Once
Monday, March 03, 2008
5 GOOMBAS
This movie was sitting in front of my DVD player for a month before I got around to watching it. No, I take that back. It sat around my house for a month in the red envelope, and I finally sent it back because I decided I wasn't going to watch it. Then, it was nominated for an Academy Award, and because I promised my Number 1 Fan that I would do my Oscar picks for 2008, I had to re-request it from Netflix. Then it lay on my floor for two weeks; intermittently placed in the actually DVD slot and then taken out again after deciding that I actually wanted to watch something else. If I had known what a perfect movie this was going to be, two months earlier, my life would have been just a little bit better.
Described as a contemporary musical, Once isn't of the traditional genre where the actors spontaneously break out into song and dance. Its a story of a lonely street performer who meets a girl as she sells flowers on the street. Within a week, they casually begin writing and composing music together, and though brief, their encounter leads to an intense connection grounded in music.
This film is so simple, in both its story and its characters, but the anonymity and relatability of the their relationship, with each other and the audience, highlights their passion and makes this film and their love story great. Shot on the streets of Dublin, and filmed on hand held cameras, Once left a huge lump in the deepest part of my throat. Along the sames lines as Before Sunrise (and the sequel, Before Sunset), Once is about more than what's just what's on the screen. The longing and hope that's present in the music and in the characters is subtle and stylistically raw at first, and then it gradually builds to something elegant and beautiful; a kind of tragic optomism. Their encounter is short but meaningful, and meeting for mere moments, changed them forever.
Once is a film for the refined palate, but I could be wrong. This film is pretty powerful. The romantics and audiophiles will see past its rough cinèma vèritè style and the dragging sort of plot, and others will see themselves in these characters. Either way, its definitely worth a watch, even if you end up hating it (though that would break my heart). I still stand by my 5 GOOMBAS; you're deprived if you don't see it just once.