For ‘Once,’ Songs Fuel the Musical

By Claudia Puig

USA Today

It’s an idea whose time has come: a low-budget movie musical informed more by YouTube than MTV.

Where Moulin Rouge was the quintessential musical inspired by music videos, Once has the grittier look of a documentary.

But its heartfelt story draws viewers in, enhanced by naturalistic performances and, most of all, intensely affecting songs.

The winner of the audience award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, the Irish film, set on the streets of Dublin, has some of the most appealing, moving and rousing musical numbers heard in independent films.

With its irresistible score, it brings to mind The Commitments. (Star Glen Hansard had a small part in that 1991 film.) As written and directed by John Carney, the film has an intriguing socio-cultural element woven throughout.

Its backdrop is Ireland’s booming economy, which has drawn a surge of immigrants from Eastern Europe.

In addition to revealing the changing face of Ireland, the film chronicles, mostly through musical rendezvous, a budding romance between a Dublin-born busker (Hansard) who repairs vacuum cleaners and a young woman from the Czech Republic (Marketa Irglova) who sells flowers and cleans houses to earn a meager living.

Both Hansard and Irglova are musicians by trade, not professional actors. Their unpretentious performances and on-screen chemistry charmingly enhance the story, which has an improvisational, unembellished feel.

Once is a winning and engaging portrait of two people’s powerful connection through music. While the two main performances are honest and convincing, forgoing the stilted feel of classic musicals, the unequivocal highlight is the collection of songs, which range from lilting to haunting.

The songs are written and sung by Hansard, lead singer of the Irish band The Frames, and Irglova, also a musician in her native Czech Republic.

The pair have an alchemic bond, forged through their musical connection. In one of the film’s most indelible scenes, Irglova, having just composed lyrics to Hansard’s music, pads in her pajamas and slippers through the night streets of urban Dublin, pouring her heart out in song.

Director Carney and the actors work together to transport the audience to the realm of pure emotion. The film, made on a shoestring budget, wisely avoids the standard romantic musical cliches.

Singer/songwriter Hansard sounds a bit like a Celtic Cat Stevens, though a bit fiercer, with elements of fellow Irishman Damien Rice and the English folkrock musician Richard Thompson.

This is “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg” for a new generation, without the impending sense of tragedy.