ONCE (2006)

When a tiny, independent Irish film wins Best Original Song at the Academy Awards over a slew of Disney offerings, you know that the song, and the film, must be special. This happened in 2008, when the theme song from the film Once, Fallin' Slowly, received that honour. I remember the songwriter and star, Glen Hansard, leaping up on stage to receive the award with his co-star and co-songwriter, Marketa Irglova, and shouting the words, "Make art!" I was moved by those words, so I saw the film, and felt something inside me shift. Fallin' Slowly never became a hit, at least in the US, but I found myself humming it. I couldn't get the movie or the music out of my head.

An Irish street musician meets a young Czech woman who turns out to be a singer and pianist. She's impressed when she hears him bang out his gut-wrenching songs on his beat-up guitar on the street. Though Once isn't a musical, it is, indeed, all about music: An Irish street musician meets a young Czech woman who turns out to be a singer and pianist. She's impressed when she hears him bang out his gut-wrenching songs on his beat-up guitar on the street. But their bond is formed over his fixing her vacuum cleaner - he also runs an appliance repair shop with his dad. She then takes him to her favourite music store and plays one of his songs (Fallin' Slowly) on the piano while together they form the vocal harmonies. They realise, in that moment, they're destined to make music together. He finds her attractive, but she has a child with some guy who's currently out of the picture, and he's still pining over a girlfriend who hurt him and then left town. So they hold romance at bay while they write songs and work toward producing a CD together. It's all her idea - he's long ago given up on himself, but her faith in him rekindles his passion for his music. And while there are plenty of interesting lesser-characters that round out the film, the music is absolutely a star all in itself. In 2011, Once hit Broadway and was nominated for 11 Tony Awards. I went to see it and fell even more in love with the story and music than I had been before. I'm actually not a big fan of musicals, but the play, like the movie, is not one where the characters burst into song to express their emotions, nor sing any part of the dialogue (thank god!). The music, a kind of soulful folk-rock, is only performed when the characters are sharing it with each other, or in the sound studio as they record the CD. Though the stage version is stupendous, I keep coming back to that little film that has a charm all its own. I can't say it's a romance, but it does fill you with a sense of the romantic. And just as Glen Hansard shouted about making art at the Oscars, Once reminds you how important and beautiful it is to do that, and to keep art in your life. I'm smiling just thinking about it.

Movie reviewed by Georgina Young-Ellis

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