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I'm not at all surprised that my esteemed colleague Michael Phillips of the Tribune selected John Carney's “Once” as the best film of 2007.

I gave it my Special Jury Prize, which is sort of an equal first; no movie was going to budge “ Juno ” off the top of my list. “Once” was shot for next to nothing in 17 days, doesn't even give names to its characters, is mostly music with not a lot of dialog, and is magical from beginning to end. It's one of those films where you hold your breath, hoping it knows how good it is, and doesn't take a wrong turn.

It doesn't. Even the ending is the right ending, the more you think about it.

The film is set in Dublin, where we see a street musician singing for donations. This is the Guy ( Glen Hansard ). He attracts an audience of the Girl ( Marketa Irglova ). She loves his music. She's a pianist herself. He wants to hear her play. She doesn't have a piano. She takes him to a music store where she knows the owner, and they use a display piano. She plays some Mendelssohn. We are in love with this movie. He is falling in love with her. He just sits there and listens. She is falling in love with him. She just sits there and plays. There is an unusual delay before we get the obligatory reaction shot of the store owner, because all the movie wants to do is sit there and listen, too.

This is working partly because of the deeply good natures we sense these two people have. They aren't “picking each other up.” They aren't flirting — or, well, technically they are, but in that way that means, “I'm not interested unless you're too good to be true.”

They love music, and they're not faking it. We sense to a rare degree the real feelings of the two of them; there's no overlay of technique, effect or style.

They are just purely and simply themselves. Hansard is a professional musician, well known in Ireland as leader of a band named the Frames. Irglova is an immigrant from the Czech Republic, only 17 years old, who had not acted before. She has the kind of smile that makes a man want to be a better person, so he can deserve being smiled at.

The film develops their story largely in terms of song. In between, they confide their stories. His heart was broken because his girlfriend left him and moved to London. She takes him home to meet her mother, who speaks hardly any English, and to join three neighbors who file in every night to watch their TV.

And he meets her child, which comes as a surprise. Then he finds out she's married. Another surprise, and we sense that in his mind he had already dumped the girl in London and was making romantic plans. He's wounded, but brave. He takes her home to meet his dad, a vacuum cleaner repairman. She has a Hoover that needs fixing. It's Kismet.

He wants to record a demo record, take it to London, and play it for music promoters. She helps him, and not just by playing piano. When it comes down to it, she turns out to be level-headed, decisive, take-charge. An ideal producer. They recruit other street musicians for a session band, and she negotiates a rock-bottom price for a recording studio. And so on. All with music. And all with their love, and our love for their love, only growing. At one point he asks if she still loves her husband, and she answers in Czech, and the movie doesn't subtitle her answer, because if she'd wanted subtitles, she would have answered in English, which she speaks perfectly well.

“Once” is the kind of film I've been pestered about ever since I started reviewing again. People couldn't quite describe it, but they said I had to see it. I had to. Well, I did. They were right.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Once (2007)

Glen Hansard as The Guy

Marketa Irglova as The Girl

Written and directed by

John Carney

Photographed by

Tim Fleming

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The Movie Review: 'Once'

Cillian Murphy is a rising young actor who has delivered several fine performances of late (in Batman Begins , Red Eye , and Breakfast on Pluto , among others) and possesses arguably the most piercing blue eyes since Paul Newman. So it is a considerable surprise that, to date, his greatest contribution to cinema may be a movie he wasn't in.

Murphy, who before taking up acting was a nearly-signed rock singer, had been slated to star in and produce Once , an indie-rock musical directed by fellow Irishman John Carney. But when Murphy discovered that Carney had cast a nonprofessional actress as his co-lead and heard some of the vocally complex songs he was expected to sing, he--and with him, all the financing--pulled out of the project.

So Carney turned to the man who had written the songs and recommended the female lead in the first place: Glen Hansard of the Irish band The Frames. (Carney had been the group's bassist in the early 1990s.) Hansard, who'd appeared in exactly one film--a supporting role in Alan Parker's The Commitments 15 years earlier--was persuaded to play the missing lead, and Carney put the film together in three weeks for a meager $150,000, all of it supplied by the Irish Film Board.

The result should shame filmmakers with budgets a thousand times larger. Once is a small miracle, an unprepossessing gem that is at once true to life and utterly magical. It is also one of the best romantic comedies in a generation, provided one is willing to define that category broadly enough to accept a film that delivers few jokes and contains just a single kiss--on the cheek. The word "winsome" was invented for experiences such as this.

The winner of the audience award at Sundance, Once opened a few weeks ago in a tiny number of theatres scattered across the country. And while that number has increased each week (to 120 screens nationwide, at last counting), it won't be around for long, so if you can find it, see it. Quickly. (Yes, this is a late recommendation, but one, I think, firmly in the better-than-never camp.)

Hansard plays a Dublin busker (i.e., street musician) who performs covers for the crowds by day and his own compositions to the empty sidewalk by night. Until one night, that is, when the sidewalk turns out not to be empty. A young Czech immigrant (Markéta Irglová) stops to listen and then questions him with invasive but charming directness: Who did you write that song for? Where is she? Is she dead? Hansard is at first put off by his inquisitor, but gradually warms. When she asks what his day job is, a concrete link is formed: He fixes vacuum cleaners in his dad's shop; she has a vacuum cleaner in need of fixing. Might she bring it by for him to take a look at?

Thus begins one of the most endearing associations in recent cinema. She brings her Hoover by the next day, dragging it by the hose like a leashed puppy. Hansard is again annoyed by the imposition, but ultimately agrees to take a look at the machine. ("What's wrong with it?" he asks. "It's fucked," she replies matter-of-factly, draining the word of any hint of obscenity.) Soon enough, their relationship moves beyond vacuum cleaners. Irglová, too, is a musician, a classically trained piano player. And while she is too poor to afford her own piano, the proprietor of a music shop allows her to play one in the back of his store during lunchtime. Irglová invites Hansard to join her with his guitar and they share a duet, tentatively at first and then with increasing confidence. (One of the few coynesses of the film--though one easy to ignore--is that neither of the lead characters is given a name.) From this first, informal collaboration arise others: She writes lyrics for one of his songs, and later joins the thrown-together "band" with whom he records demos of his music.

With the exception of one clumsy proposition, angrily declined, it is never stated but always evident that the two are also falling in love. But there are complicating factors: the girlfriend who left Hansard for London and for whom he still pines; the mother and young daughter who live with Irglová, and the estranged husband she left behind in the Czech Republic. And though these might appear to be surmountable obstacles, neither character makes any great effort to surmount them. It's as if both recognize that what they have between them, their romantic non-romance, is too delicate to burden with heavier demands.

The result is a love-affair-by-other-means, and the means are primarily musical. Opinions will vary of the songs themselves, which have been widely compared, both in flattery and disdain, to Coldplay. (For my part, I found them frequently affecting, though the tendency of almost every one to begin as a quiet lament before building to a wailing chorus becomes a little tiresome.) On some level, though, it hardly matters: Hansard and Irglová are not performing for us, exactly, but for themselves and for one another, their songs like a runoff channel for the overflow of feelings they cannot share directly. The result is musical numbers that are simultaneously undersold and brimming with meaning. One in particular, in which Irglová walks the nighttime streets in pajamas and bunny slippers, composing lyrics as she listens to her Discman, is the most evocative, unforgettable sequence I've seen in a movie this year.

Hansard is very good as a likable layabout whose stabs at cynicism do nothing to obscure a generous heart. But Irglová is a true find. Just 19 years old, the Czech singer-songwriter (with whom Hansard had collaborated on an earlier album) conjures a character with thicker armor than her costar and, belying her age, greater maturity. She, like the film, knows that the easiest, most obvious thing to do (kiss him, for goodness sake!) is not necessarily what will serve her best in the end. Rather than presenting her child and husband as complications to be solved, the movie recognizes that they are her reality; Hansard is the complication. In an era when Hollywood has largely lost the ability to distinguish between romance and sex, Once is the rare film that recognizes that love is no less love for being held in check, it is merely a different kind of love. Sixty years after David Lean's most intimate masterpiece, Brief Encounter , this is still a controversial cinematic assertion.

The film Once resembles still more closely, though, is Richard Linklater's Before Sunrise , another minor-key marvel of romantic portraiture. As in that film, the two leads do not face any particular challenges together beyond the simple, and yet immensely complicated, task of deciding what they think of one another and what they want to do about it. Indeed, apart from their underlying conflicts, the lives of Hansard and Irglová seem almost charmed: Whereas a typical film would include a few unhappy swerves on the road to the successful demo session, Once motors pleasantly along from small victory to small victory. The potential heavies encountered--Hansard's dad, the man in charge of a bank loan, the skeptical recording engineer--are all quickly won over; the eventual fruition of his music career seems secure. All that remains is the question of love. I won't say how the film answers it, except to note that it is exactly right, an ending equal parts happy and sad, and somehow deeply affirming--a remarkable achievement at any price.

This post originally appeared at TNR.com.

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Once Reviews

In the end, they were both strangers guided by the kindness they showed one another. And I bet youve forgotten what resolution the camera quality is by the end credits.

Full Review | Feb 21, 2022

Effectively capturing the world of street musicians, writer-director John Carney hit gold in a story of talented artists seeking the big time in little venues. Wistful romance and memorable music proved flexible enough for a move from film to stage...

Full Review | Aug 11, 2021

A simple miracle of a film.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.0/4.0 | Sep 18, 2020

Movies like this don't come along very often, and Once is really something special.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Jun 6, 2019

The simple and real love story will stay with you.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 15, 2018

If "The Commitments" shows the gritty, robust side of Dublin and the Irish music scene, "Once" shows us a softer, more romantic side.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Apr 18, 2014

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Nov 18, 2011

Full Review | Original Score: 7.5/10 | Oct 10, 2011

At once delicate and gritty, wistful and deeply satisfying.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Oct 29, 2008

So this is how you make a low-budget musical these days!

Full Review | Oct 18, 2008

There is much to admire about Once, in a little-movie-that-could kind of way, but it can't help but get in its own way just when it begins to gain some momentum

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Oct 18, 2008

In an era when Hollywood has largely lost the ability to distinguish between romance and sex, Once is the rare film that recognizes that love is no less love for being held in check, it is merely a different kind of love.

Full Review | Sep 18, 2008

my biggest road block was the fact that I didn't like the music

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 17, 2008

It has its own peculiar naturalism, a kind of lo-fi, lovelorn charm.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 7, 2008

Um filme mágico que, através de sua narrativa enganosamente simples, alcança uma vitória que escapa à maioria das obras do gênero, retratando com sentimento o instante preciso no qual dois seres humanos se descobrem apaixonados um pelo outro.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Apr 19, 2008

Once is the anti-blockbuster that couldn't have come at a better time.

Full Review | Original Score: 9/10 | Feb 28, 2008

a tender little ultralow budget movie about the intimate connection of making music...the warm folkiness of the songs and their generally non-narrative-pushing content make it feel more like a long, lovely home movie of a short portion of two people's liv

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 16, 2008

Un effort battant la mesure d'une manière somme toute imparfaite, mais néanmoins prenante, qu'un genre aussi excessif que le film musical a besoin de temps à autre...

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Feb 16, 2008

A moving story about two people who share a common love of music.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Feb 2, 2008

mia idiaiteri kinimatografiki empeiria, esto kai san kolaz, apo mia seira binteoklip me toys idioys, agapimenoys soy protagonistes

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jan 26, 2008

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Music, Love and Fatalism: How Irish

By David Browne

May 13, 2007

DON’T get John Carney, the Irish-born director of “Once,” started on the topic of movie musicals. “I like ‘Guys and Dolls,’ ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ and ‘A Star Is Born,’ ” he said in a recent interview in New York. “When it works, a musical is an amazing thing. But it rarely works.”

Mr. Carney has similarly mixed feelings about the spotty legacy of pop stars who venture before the camera. “Let’s look back on this for a minute,” he said. “ ‘8 Mile’ was good. Perfect execution. But 50 Cent in ‘Get Rich or Die Tryin’?” Mr. Carney frowned and shook his head. “Pretty bad. It’s a big risk for a rock star.”

While these opinions may not be new or startling, they are striking in light of Mr. Carney’s own film. “Once” is not only a musical of sorts but stars two musicians: Glen Hansard, the lead singer and songwriter of the Frames, a longtime Irish rock band, and Marketa Irglova, a young Czech pianist.

Yet “Once” is not a typical musical, rock or otherwise. The film, which opens Wednesday in New York and Los Angeles, tells the story of a busker (played by Mr. Hansard) who meets a young Eastern European pianist (Ms. Irglova) on the streets of Dublin. The two become friends and collaborators; although each is in the midst of a troubled relationship, they also become potential lovers. As the two characters rehearse and record the busker’s songs, the musical performances are woven into the narrative; instead of being jarring set pieces, they’re part of the plot.

“I kept thinking, ‘How do you make a modern musical?’ ” Mr. Carney said. “Then it became clear that I could do it just like a small indie art-house movie, very naturalistically. I could create a world where it’s O.K. to break into song, without an orchestra coming up out of nowhere.”

The idea of reviving the often-maligned genre of the rock musical is one of several twists in the saga of “Once.” It is based on Mr. Carney’s own experiences when he was living in Dublin and temporarily separated from his girlfriend, who was pursuing an acting career in England. The film was originally conceived as a vehicle for the Irish actor Cillian Murphy, with whom Mr. Carney worked on the 2001 film “On the Edge.” Mr. Hansard and a close friend, the Irish balladeer Damien Rice, were asked to write songs for Mr. Murphy to sing.

In the role of the Eastern European pianist, Mr. Carney then hired Ms. Irglova, a 17-year-old Czech high school student who had played music before with Mr. Hansard. (They recorded an album together last year.) She had zero acting experience, however, and, partly for that reason Mr. Murphy soon bowed out. (“It’s a real risk for an actor to be in a movie with a non-actor,” Ms. Irglova acknowledged.)

Without a name leading man, the film was on the verge of collapse until Mr. Carney asked Mr. Hansard, 37, if he would take the role himself. The two men have known each other since Mr. Carney was the original bass player in the Frames. “He sells the songs better than anybody,” Mr. Carney said.

Having acted only once — in a small role in “The Commitments” in 1991 — Mr. Hansard was ambivalent about his own abilities and the rock-actor field. “Dylan is one of my great heroes,” Mr. Hansard said. “But he’s done a few acting roles where I’m like: ‘You’re Bob Dylan and you’re the best. What are you doing in this other area?’ I’m a real believer in sticking to your craft.”

Mr. Hansard also doubted whether audiences would sit through full performances of eight unknown songs. Yet he agreed to take on the role, although with the stipulation that he too would flee if the first few days of filming didn’t produce anything of value.

For the two novice actors, the early shooting days were indeed rough, said Ms. Irglova, who felt particularly intimidated by the cameras. But the musicians’ pre-established rapport smoothed matters over, as did Mr. Hansard’s 16 years of performing with the Frames. “Having to go onstage, if you’re in a good or bad mood, sometimes requires a certain amount of acting,” he conceded. “You’d like to think that when you go onstage you’re completely honest all the time. But that’s not always the case. Sometimes you think, ‘The best thing I can do is smile and just get through it.’ ”

The film was completed in 17 days for $150,000, most of which was paid for by the Irish Film Board. The title originally referred to a planned scene in which the two characters made love, but just once. After the actors objected to Mr. Carney’s idea (“So predictable,” Ms. Irglova said), the scene wasn’t filmed. Now the title, Mr. Carney says, refers to fellow Irishmen and women he would encounter in bars: “They say, ‘Once I do this, then it’ll be great.’ But they never do it. It’s a great Irish tradition of vacillating.”

In keeping with another Irish tradition — fatalism — initial expectations for “Once” were low, especially after film festivals in Toronto and elsewhere rejected it. Everyone expected the movie to play briefly in Dublin and then be released on DVD. But in another unexpected turn a scout for the Sundance Film Festival saw “Once” at the annual movie festival in Galway. And with that, “Once” was included in this year’s Sundance, where it walked off with the Audience Award. Mr. Carney and Mr. Hansard, who both attended the festival, were so convinced that it didn’t stand a chance of winning any awards that they had to change their return plane reservations at the last minute (and at substantial cost) so they could attend the closing ceremony.

At Sundance the film was bought for a modest $500,000 by Fox Searchlight Pictures, which in some ways is hoping to repeat the success of “Garden State,” a film the company bought at that festival in 2004. Like that film “Once” is a modest, low-key movie that incorporates haunting indie rock. Mr. Hansard’s ache-in-heart ballads are comparable to the songs of the Shins, the indie band whose songs played a prominent role in “Garden State.”

Much as “Garden State” benefited from indie rock fans who troll the Internet, “Once” also will be promoted heavily on music blogs, said Nancy Utley, chief operating officer of Fox Searchlight. In the file-sharing era it’s possible that one of the film’s subjects — the way unexpressive people can connect and communicate through music — could travel beyond Ireland. Geoffrey Gilmore, the Sundance festival director, said that this film’s themes of “immigration and cross-cultural migration” are also timely.

Mr. Carney hopes that the ambiguous relationship at the core of the film will also resonate with viewers. “It’s the ones who are gone who haunt you for the rest of your life,” he said. “Instead of saying, ‘I love you’ or ‘I miss you,’ they just disappear.”

For his part, though, Mr. Hansard is wary of any heightened prospects for the movie.

“No one will be happier than me if this film is successful,” he said. “But ‘Garden State’ was full of stars and probably made for $20 million. ‘Once’ is a tiny fish in an ocean of whales. In terms of expectations everybody needs to be realistic.” A fatalistic Irishman couldn’t have said it better.

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Once: EW review

Just about everyone with a heartbeat has had this tingly experience. You’re at a movie, and a song, as if by magic, breaks through the surface of the drama. Suddenly, you’re no longer sitting and watching — you’re soaring. That’s the feeling you get at the 1954 A Star Is Born , or at Moulin Rouge , and you can get it, as well, from naturalistic movies that are built like musicals, such as Nashville , Saturday Night Fever , or Sid & Nancy . But until Once , which was written and directed by John Carney, I’m not sure that I’d ever seen a small-scale, nonstylized, kitchen-sink drama in which the songs take on the majesty and devotion of a musical dream.

On the sidewalks of Dublin, a 30ish fellow (Glen Hansard) strums a guitar with a worn-out hole where the pick board should be. His face would look cherubic if it weren’t swathed in an orange beard, and he sings with a fervor that might make your average street musician blush. Most folks pass him right by, but one girl (Markéta Irglová), shy yet with a disarmingly open smile, lingers, attracted by his braying passion. Once tells the deceptively simple story of how these two (we never learn their names) are drawn, over a few days, into each other’s orbit, a romance — or is it? — played out in the songs they sing together.

Early on, they go to a musical-instrument store, where the girl, a Czech immigrant in her early 20s, likes to play the piano (she can’t afford one herself). He teaches her one of the songs he wrote and hopes to record professionally, and as they begin to play, with him singing ”I don’t know you/But I want you/All the more for that,” the scene becomes a shimmering reverie of love at its birth. Is this what they feel? What they hope to feel? Or is it just an exalted moment of harmonic bliss? That we don’t entirely know — and that they don’t know either — is part of what’s so touching about it, and the beauty of the number, the way that the voices blend and soar, building and stretching the words into a sustained cry, makes it seem as if time itself is standing still.

Hansard, a member of the Irish group the Frames, wrote the movie’s songs, and they are softly gorgeous odes to troubled hearts — what emo promises and (to my ears) never delivers. Away from the piano and guitar, Once moves with the dartingly unresolved, clear-eyed spirit of a French New Wave film. The girl, it turns out, has a daughter, plus a husband in the Czech Republic; the guy has an ex in London he may still love (their relationship is captured in a home-video montage that’s like a mini operetta). Instinctively, we want to see Hansard, with his tender bluster, and Irglová, all watchful innocence, save each other; Once plays off that desire, then peeks behind it. Away from the music, the two are caught in a limbo of doubt and expectation. Yet when Irglová, singing with a demo she’s listening to on headphones, walks down a street luxuriating in the percolating sadness of ”If You Want Me,” or the two of them, in the recording studio Hansard has rented for a weekend, give themselves over to the syncopated yearning of ”When Your Mind’s Made Up,” the movie swoons, and you will too.

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By Peter Travers

Peter Travers

Summer brings out the Bigfoot in Hollywood with blockbusters at the ready to stomp out any movie that values simplicity and sincere emotion. Well, don’t let summer squash Once , the Irish musical from writer-director John Carney that struck a lyrical chord at Sundance earlier this year. Cut through the Spidey-Shrek hype and seek it out. You won’t be sorry. It’s a magical, beguiling wonder. When I say Irish musical, think U2, not Riverdance, and get set for a gift of a movie that is absolutely worth seeing more than once. The Frames frontman Glen Hansard as a Dublin songwriter who takes his guitar to the streets and sings himself hoarse to deaf ears. That is, until he meets a pretty Czech pianist (Marketa Irglova) who gives him the guts to quit his dad’s repair shop and t finding the bucks to make a recording. That’s it, a bittersweet love story with ravishing Hansard music (“Falling Slowly” is a killer) and the ache of romance in its soul. Nothing about this mood piece should work — the budget is shoestring and the actors are inexperienced. But Once brims with small pleasures that pay major dividends. Carney, who played bass for the Frames till 1993, is a filmmaker to watch. Blending the hip and the heartfelt, the tough and the tender, he creates a movie you want to hold close.

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Once Review

19 Oct 2007

NaN minutes

Every year, while the big studio titans battle for box-office supremacy, a few indie whippersnappers manage to weave their way through the tumult, emerging unsquished and lauded for their success. So while our expectations of the much-hyped monsters are either met or (more likely) punctured, it’s always welcome when a film pops up from nowhere to steal your heart.

So it is with Irish director John Carney’s Once, which won the Audience Award at Sundance and counts Steven Spielberg among its admirers. You could call it a sleeper, but it’s more like the dream. But it’s hard to make it sound even halfway appealing. A movie about a guy who composes whinge-ballads on an acoustic guitar? A love story with no sex?

It’s also a film with some very scuffed edges. Carney’s loose, low-fi shooting style isn’t particularly pretty, and despite the social-realist trappings he allows himself a few scenes which, under cold scrutiny, border on corny. One such moment sees ‘Guy’ (Glen Hansard) and band in the studio, having been dismissed as time-wasters by a surly engineer. A verse into their first recording, the engineer starts to nod in approval. By the end of the song he’s a fan. Talent wins out, as it can only in a movie.

But here’s the good news: it’s impossible to scrutinise moments like this coldly, or object to the muddy photography, for two crucial reasons. Firstly, the songs are fantastic. And secondly, you can’t help but love the people who’ve written them. And they’ve really written them.

Leads Hansard (aka Outspan from The Commitments) and Markéta Irglová (making her debut) had already recorded an album together and collaborated on all of Guy and Girl’s songs here. So there’s no dubbing, no miming, none of that gleaming-toothed ersatz quality that hopscotches through your usual big-screen musical. This is why, ultimately, the rough shooting-style suits: it’s more like catching a pair of true, raw talents in one take than watching an elaborately stage-managed show that follows months of rehearsal and leotard-tight choreography. One scene sees Girl sing along to a temp track that’s playing on a Discman as she walks along the street in her pyjamas; another has Guy composing a tune while he’s mooning over home-video footage of his ex-girlfriend (Marcella Plunkett). In short, it’s less razzle-dazzle, more warm glow.

Anchoring such moments are Hansard and Irglová’s tender, natural performances. He’s self-effacing and likeable; she’s plucky, cheeky and sweet. Both, though, have been hardened by tough experience, emotionally and financially. As suggested by the fact they display an instant connection through their music, you feel these two are destined to be together whatever the obstacles (he’s pining for his ex, she has a young daughter), their songwriting just a prelude. Naturally, things aren’t that simple. A subtle, engrossing romance ensues, but it’s one which is achingly platonic, laced with a bittersweet tang.

Still, Carney knows how to end on a high note, if not the kind you expect. Appropriately, he concludes with the most impressive shot in the movie, one guaranteed to leave a tear in your eye, and for all the best reasons, too.

Movies | 22 04 2021

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Once (2007)

At once delicate and gritty, wistful and deeply satisfying, John Carney’s Once is a intimate little film that, like a favorite song, you would rather play for someone than try to describe. Not just because the experience loses in the telling, but also because the joy is in the discovery, the in-the-moment immediacy, the barely perceptible tension that leaves you holding your breath for the last twenty minutes, not wanting a single misstep to mar the story.

Artistic/Entertainment Value

Moral/spiritual value, age appropriateness, mpaa rating, caveat spectator.

Not a story so much as an incident that becomes a turning point in two people’s lives, Once relates a brief but memorable encounter between a bearded Dublin street musician (Glen Hansard of the Irish band the Frames) and a young, ponytailed Czech pianist (19-year-old singer-songwriter Markéta Irglová).

He plays guitar on street corners; she notices his playing and is intrigued. She observes that he plays edgy, heartfelt songs only at night; he explains that he makes his money during the day from passersby who only want to hear popular songs they know. He works in his father’s vacuum cleaner repair shop; she has, yes, a broken vacuum cleaner. She plays piano, but doesn’t own one; a shop owner lets her use the store piano during lunch hour. They play together and collaborate on a song.

She is lovely; he is lonely. Both are wounded souls, and their connection is emotional as well as creative, but she has a clear, untroubled sense of who she is, and won’t let things go too far. We never learn their names, and never need to know. It’s not inconceivable that they never learn one another’s names.

Those are the notes, or some of them. What I’ve left out is the music. To call Once a musical is both entirely accurate and thoroughly misleading. It would almost be better to call it the antidote to the musical, or at least the antithesis, whether you love musicals or hate them.

If Once is a musical, then every musician lives in a musical, every painter in an art gallery and every film critic in a film festival. The actual folk-rock they play may or may not be your thing; it doesn’t matter. It’s their thing, and they live and breathe it. Nothing has been staged for our benefit; there’s no offscreen conductor or choreographer in the wings, no show-stopping production number, no artifice or razzle-dazzle. The unrehearsed quality of their first-time collaboration, of his impromptu, semi-comic musical lament on the bus, feels like the real thing. (It just about is. The film was shot in 17 days on a negligible budget.)

Watching Once , one may wonder what the title refers to. Is their chance encounter a once-in-a-lifetime experience? What is or happens once? Is it a fleeting once, like a convergence of celestial bodies? Or is it a lingering once, like true love? As the film draws to a close, it finds the one right note to resolve its lingering tensions. It could easily have gone differently, but it doesn’t misstep — not even once.

Like the personal songs the street musician sings at night, Once doesn’t play to the crowds looking for disposable mainstream fare. It comes from the heart, and for those with an ear out for something new it lingers in the heart and mind.

I’m glad you appreciated Once . I think it’s a rare person who does appreciate it the way you did though. You hinted at this throughout your review; Once is not a typical romance, musical, or low-budget film. And someone can’t just be inclined toward those types of films to enjoy it. I’ve talked with people about Once , and I’ve come to the conclusion that it is one of those movies that a lot of people just don’t or aren’t willing to understand or relate to. But, if you do let yourself be pulled in and affected, it’s immensely enjoyable and meaningful. I’m being too vague, but you know what I mean. Sometimes I wonder what came first, your reviews or my taste in movies. :)

I always look forward to reading your reviews, as they are consistently insightful and thought-provoking (not to mention that most of the time they’re right). One thing which I’ve appreciated is that I’ve never seen you criticize, say, American movies just because they’re American, or praise indie movies just because they’ve escaped Hollywood, etc. It doesn’t make any sense to do so, I think, but nevertheless it is often done. In that light, I’m wondering in what sense to take your final ’graph in your review of Once . The disjunct here seems too neat, and to reflect a stereotype (of there being a difference between “crowds” and more refined viewers) which does not need reinforcing — since in my opinion most people straddle both groups, depending on a host of factors including the time of day. And, of course, “Once” did play to crowds — it reached a vastly greater audience than anyone seems to have expected — but those crowds weren’t looking for disposable entertainment. Clarification, please?

I saw the trailer for the movie Once and it appeared that the girl was married and had a husband who was coming back. Can you tell me what happened?

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2007 Directed by John Carney

How often do you find the right person?

A vacuum repairman moonlights as a street musician and hopes for his big break. One day a Czech immigrant, who earns a living selling flowers, approaches him with the news that she is also an aspiring singer-songwriter. The pair decide to collaborate, and the songs that they compose reflect the story of their blossoming love.

Glen Hansard Markéta Irglová Hugh Walsh Gerard Hendrick Alaistair Foley Geoff Minogue Bill Hodnett Danuse Ktrestova Darren Healy Mal Whyte Marcella Plunkett Niall Cleary Sean Miller

Director Director

John Carney

Producer Producer

Martina Niland

Executive Producer Exec. Producer

David Collins

Writer Writer

Casting casting.

Maureen Hughes

Editor Editor

Paul Mullen

Cinematography Cinematography

Tim Fleming

Production Design Production Design

Tamara Conboy

Art Direction Art Direction

Composers composers.

Glen Hansard Markéta Irglová

Songs Songs

Sound sound.

Michelle Fingleton

Costume Design Costume Design

Tiziana Corvisieri

Samson Films Summit Entertainment RTÉ Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland

Ireland USA

Primary Language

Spoken languages.

Czech English

Releases by Date

20 jan 2007, theatrical limited, 16 may 2007, 23 mar 2007, 15 jun 2007, 30 aug 2007, 20 sep 2007, 19 oct 2007, 25 oct 2007, 31 oct 2007, 03 nov 2007, 14 nov 2007, 15 jan 2008, 17 jan 2008, 14 feb 2008, 28 mar 2008, 15 apr 2008, 18 apr 2008, releases by country.

Theatrical M
Theatrical 12 AB Inter. mj.gov.br
Theatrical U
Theatrical 0
Theatrical 15A

Netherlands

Theatrical AL
Theatrical M/12

South Korea

Theatrical All
Theatrical 15
Premiere Sundance Film Festival
Theatrical limited R
Theatrical R

85 mins More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by Silent J ★★★★ 11

You ever listen to a song so beautiful and amazing that it just causes you to break down and cry?

Once has a lot of those songs.

Review by Dragonknight ★★★★ 21

”It’s you I love.”

Two non-professional actors. A few heartfelt songs and a budget of just 112,000$. That’s all director John Carney needs to construct a miraculous collection of human emotions that tend to break your heart or uplift you depending on how you like to connect with the characters and the overall atmosphere of the film. With its unimaginable simplicity Once reaches the heights that many movies so desperately try to achieve with multi million dollar budgets, fake superstars and childlishly deformed stories of romance yet fail. Carney’s film manages to portray the most fundamental yet at the same time most profound emotions of us human beings and then through the magic of music transfers those earnest feelings into…

Review by adambolt ★★★

can't believe this is the first movie to be filmed on a nokia phone

Review by Rod Sedgwick ★★★★★ 11

Once is a perfect example of capturing lightning in a bottle...

I started 'Falling Slowly' for John Carney's Once the moment Glen Hansard's falsetto (like discovering Jeff Buckley or Thom Yorke all over again) and Markéta Irglová's eargasmic harmony sent chills down my spine in the film’s award winning soundtrack moment. This film is all about those moments that are only possible with shared experience through the power of music and the heart yearning for connection, and boy does it all play out in the right tune in this little Irish gem - a film that has somehow eluded me 'til now.

The film in all its simple elegance is many things; a portrait of emerging raw talent, a delicate…

Review by Holli ★★★★ 1

and to think i've put off watching this for years because the poster looked like a hallmark christmas movie

Review by Disgustipated ★★★★★ 11

When I was 18, I saw the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. She was jumping up and down at a gig, totally enthralled by the music. I went straight up to her, grabbed her by the Doc Martin boot and hoisted her up on top of the mosh pit. From that day forward, music was the medium of our romance and the soundtrack of our love. 17 years later and we are still the greatest couple to have ever existed, cemented by the foundation of our shared passion for music. Then along came a movie called Once, where two characters find love and tenderness for one another through their affinity for music and provide each other with compassionate…

Review by Ale ★★★★½

Guy: What's the Czech for "Do you love him?" Girl: Milujes ho. Guy: So, milujes ho? Girl: No, miluji tebe

This film is so beautiful, who cares about the cinematography or lighting or any technical aspect. This film is a miracle.

Review by James (Schaffrillas) ★★★ 4

I'm definitely missing something here cause this didn't work very well for me at all. It leaves a terrible first impression with the cinematography at the beginning, but that aspect improves as the film goes along (even if the flat lighting doesn't). The bigger issue for me is how the script feels entirely barebones, rendering the story and romance very basic and unengaging. I don't feel a particularly strong connection between the main characters and I don't feel like I know them well at all.

The movie's saving grace is definitely the music; every song sequence is genuinely magical and it elevates the entire package. I wish I could just fall in love with this film; it's impressive for a…

Review by Sarah ★★★★★

Imagine meeting a guy and asking him to play a song he's written, and he plays bloody Falling Slowly.

Review by mary🦋 ★★★★ 5

This movie and its songs (“falling slowly“ and “if you want me” in particular) added at least 10 years to my life

Review by ji ★★★★★ 3

“take this sinking boat and point it home we’ve still got time raise your hopeful voice, you have a choice you’ll make it now”

MY HEART IS GRIEVING LEAVE ME ALONE

Review by Prateek Sharma ★★★★★

I guess Ted lasso was right when he said " Once so good I saw it twice".. Whatta beautiful heartwarming and upbeat film this is.. We all know John Carney for begin again but it clearly seems he made the film begin again for wide audience taking the inspiration from Once. He wrote two of my favorite characters now with Markéta Irglová and Keira knightley in Once and begin again respectively.. Both in vulnerable state still holds up pretty well and knows how to live life... This film is just vibe, experience it, feel it and watch it.. The scene with father son at last few mins and that ending scene made me emotional not gonna lie... The way John Carney…

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‘Once’ movie review: irresistible musical tells story of a Czech immigrant in Dublin

October 24, 2007
★★★½ , Movie Reviews

Touching, heartfelt, irresistible; John Carney´s Once is anything but a traditional musical but ultimately achieves the same effect as the best in the genre.

And make no mistake, this is a musical: throughout the film are music numbers (entirely written and performed by the two stars) that are realistically integrated into the story.

Characters don´t randomly break out into song-and-dance, but perform to make a living, as a way of life – the pretension of a typical musical removed, one can enjoy the excellent soundtrack without being removed from the story.

Impressive direction, handheld camerawork, and natural acting combine to produce a realistic musical unlike any other: not since The Umbrellas of Cherbourg have the boundaries of the genre been broken so effectively.

Glen Hansard (of the Irish band The Frames ) stars as an aspiring musician who sings on the streets of Dublin when he´s not fixing vacuum cleaners in his father´s repair shop.

Markéta Irglová plays a Czech immigrant who works in a piano shop by day (and plays them when she gets the chance), and takes care of her mother and daughter by night.

Simplistic to a fault, the film doesn´t even give these characters names – Carney has his eye on conveying emotions, the usual small details deemed unnecessary.

Girl and Guy (as they´re credited) meet by chance on the Dublin streets, as she enjoys his music and happens to have a vacuum in need of repair.

Girl helps Guy cut a demo, and the two begin to quietly fall in love, even though they both have attachments elsewhere: Guy´s girlfriend recently left him and moved to London (where he intends to go to promote his demo), while Girl left her husband in the Czech Republic to seek a better life for herself and her daughter in Ireland.

Minor knowledge of Czech will enhance the experience – especially during one moving scene.

A touching love story, an excellent musical, and a testament to what can be achieved in film on a miniscule budget. Nothing short of magical.

2007 , Glen Hansard , John Carney , Markéta Irglová , Once

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A great story of an unlikely friendship and finding your passion despite hard circumstances., truly beautiful, breath of fresh air, way too much cussing, otherwise great.

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Toby Francis as Guy and Stefanie Caccamo as Girl in Richard Carroll’s production of Once.

Once review – hearts soar and music shimmers in deeply-felt, generous musical

Eternity theatre, Darlinghurst Based on the 2007 film, Australia’s production of the Broadway hit is tender and heartbreaking, with Stefanie Caccamo undisputedly the star

D arlinghurst’s Eternity theatre is named for Arthur Stace. He was the cleaner of the building in the 1930s, back when it was the Burton Street Baptist Tabernacle, and he was so inspired by the sermons there that he felt called to write the word “eternity” over and over on footpaths around Sydney. He did this for decades, so determined was he to rouse his city and the people in it towards love and redemption.

Perhaps then the Eternity is the perfect home for Once: the soft-spoken, deeply felt musical about the forces of human connection that compel us to reach out to one another and hold on for dear life. It’s a place for the soul, for the heart, and Once is about people who need their souls healed. Our lead characters are “stopped” – depressed, stuck in a moment, unable to move forward. Until they make each other move.

First immortalised in the 2007 film by the same name, written by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, who perform together as the Swell Season, the musical debuted on Broadway in 2011, and won eight Tony awards. Richard Carroll’s Australian production debuted in 2019, a little jewel amongst musical theatre’s more rambunctious cousins. It has returned home two years and a pandemic later with its arms open wide and a 21-week tour ahead, packed with small venues offering the gift of intimacy. It’s what this musical needs: it works best if we get close.

From the moment we enter, there are offerings to situate us inside the story: mulled wine by the door, new signs in the foyer welcoming us to an old-fashioned Irish pub. Even the bar is wearing its own costume. An Irish band plays folk songs. It’s the gentlest form of immersion, a space between reality and a new fictional world.

Onstage, Hugh O’Connor’s production design is warm and earthy, with wooden boxes and benches making up most of the non-instrument props; Peter Rubie’s lights create dimension – mournful dark, shafts of hopeful light. Swinging doors and a window offer a promise of forward momentum.

The story starts with a heartbroken Guy (Toby Francis), who has been singing one last song on the street in Dublin, readying himself to leave his guitar, and possibly the world, behind. Then he meets a Girl (Stefanie Caccamo). She sees the Guy’s pain, recognises within it something of her own, and offers him a lifeline they both need. Two bruised hearts in a city of poets, their connection unfurls into something beautiful and necessary – and utterly impossible (it only lasts five days).

Most musicals build toward a happy ending; Once understands that not every romance ends well, or even gets to begin at all. Instead, this is a love story about feeling something new and nourishing – about breaking through the numbness and stasis to grow.

Stefanie Caccamo as Girl in Australian production of Once.

The most dated aspect of the show is its story structure, which positions the Girl primarily as a saviour of the Guy and only latterly as a complicated character in her own right, but its music – where the heart of a musical always lies – never diminishes her. It helps too that Caccamo is undisputedly the star of this production; her wry cleverness and astonishing voice wields emotion like a map, making the Girl feel very real and very human.

Francis’s Guy is gruff and miserable, a little less emotionally accessible than the Girl, but his glorious tenor and subtle command of timing makes him a great partner for Caccamo. This Guy is a product of the early 2000s too; he thinks more of his own pain than the Girl’s, but when they finally understand each other – and understand that their connection cannot last – he meets her in that moment. It could make you weep.

Carroll’s production has matured since its initial season into a self-assured, music-first production. Its humour is well-judged, with Carroll’s love for going broad mostly funnelled into Drew Livingston’s bank manager, who fancies himself a bit of a bard. It’s a welcome relief to laugh, and laugh hard, and this one grand outlet seems to have afforded Carroll some welcome restraint; he trusts the vulnerabilities and emotional revelations of the characters to carry the rest of the show, letting their jokes – and there are many – play smaller and more real. It’s a welcome new dimension.

The few moments that seem to lag and flounder do not last – the music, Irish folk blended with torch songs, is always there to save them. The cast is also the band, and musical director Victoria Falconer, who plays the part of Reza, has built a generous and shimmering world of music, the clarity of which is rightly prioritised by Dylan Robinson’s sound design.

In the music, hearts soar, and as the cast weaves their way through the show, movement director Amy Campbell has them create a moving symphony – a violin on roller blades, guitars in formation, mandolin and cello emerging from the shadows.

In the end, it’s the music – and how it speaks the language of our feelings – that saves the Guy and the Girl, and it might just crack something open in you too.

Once runs at the Eternity theatre until Sunday 18 July, before touring regional NSW and Canberra through August and September

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'The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live' Ending Explained: Does the CRM Win?

Will this be the last we see of Rick and Michonne?

Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live.

The Big Picture

The finale of The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live follows Rick and Michonne as they take down the CRM.
The episode features multiple callbacks and flashbacks as a tribute to The Walking Dead franchise.
Given the way the episode ends, a Season 2 wouldn't be interesting or necessary.

The Walking Dead has frequently indulged in painful cliffhangers and tragic concluding gut punches, but Scott Gimple markedly decides to take a very different approach to the ending of The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live . Rick Grimes ( Andrew Lincoln ) and Michonne's ( Danai Gurira ) post-apocalyptic romance has a sweet and simple happy ever after that places their relationship and journey at the forefront. While the narrative itself was fairly disappointing, there is no question that the finale of The Ones Who Live serves as a tribute to The Walking Dead franchise . Featuring multiple callbacks and flashbacks to the flagship show, this finale makes us feel cozy and resolved, which in turn possibly diminishes the anticipation for a potential Season 2.

The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live

The love story between Rick and Michonne. Changed by a world that is constantly changing, will they find themselves in a war against the living or will they discover that they too are The Walking Dead?

Jadis Leaves an Easter Egg for Michonne in 'The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live'

We are left with Rick and Michonne finally facing off against Jadis ( Pollyanna McIntosh ) in a furious car chase and a final showdown. Episode 5 of The Ones Who Live sees the death of Jadis and her partial redemption as she reveals the location of her fail-safe dossier that would lead to the destruction of Alexandria. Rick and Michonne decide to pause their journey home to help the people of the Civic Republic and open their eyes to the nefarious deeds conducted by their Military (CRM). Always striving to be good role models and create a better world for the children, it was inevitable that the unstoppable couple would return to enact their justice.

Rick and Michonne are each to execute a different part of the plan: Michonne will destroy the Alexandria dossier and Rick will gain the information to destroy the CRM. As Michonne sneaks her way into Jadis' room, we see that Anne was far more alive in her private life than she had let on during her conversations with Father Gabriel Stokes ( Seth Gilliam ) . Her room is littered with artist paraphernalia and her walls plastered with both thoughtful sketches and fully colored renderings of familiar faces. One that particularly stands out is the multiple paintings of Gabriel, further emphasizing that Anne was never really gone.

There is also a nod to Jadis' tumultuous relationship with Michonne and Rick , as the dossier was hidden in a metal wire cat sculpture. Back in Season 3 of The Walking Dead , one of the light-hearted moments shared between Michonne and Carl ( Chandler Riggs ) involved raiding a walker-invested bar to reclaim a family photo and retrieve a rainbow cat statue. This moment is also recalled by Rick's statement of falling in love with his "son's best friend" during the latter of The Ones Who Live 's finale (it is only creepy if taken out of context). Symbolizing the world before, but also hopeful frivolity in the decimated world, the cat statue also made a reappearance in Season 7 when Rick stole a cat statue after defeating the Scavengers. This particular cat was created by Jadis herself and while this new wired one isn't the same, it signifies the characters coming into their own and finally feeling like themselves again .

'The Ones Who Live's Finale Pays Tribute to 'The Walking Dead'

While Michonne is busy destroying the dossier and attacking a stray soldier that decides to enter Jadis' room, Rick returns to the front gates of the CRM, demonstrating his fidelity and earning him the "Echelon briefing." Throughout his meeting with General Beale ( Terry O'Quinn ), he is prompted to decide what the worst thing he ever did was. From stabbing his best friend Shane ( Jon Bernthal ), to ramming a machete into a former prisoner after promising mercy, to ripping apart the cannibals of Terminus, Rick settled on his gnarliest kill of the franchise : ripping a guy's throat out with his teeth.

Alongside the highlight reel of Rick and Michonne's most brutal kills is the confronting words of General Beale and the horrendous slideshow Michonne sits through explaining the CRM's plans. The intensity of the atmosphere increases as General Beale relays that, despite their military and scientific efforts, everyone was likely to die anyway . This is coupled with Michonne learning that they are going to destroy Portland and save a small fraction of their children, just so the CRM can declare martial law on the Republic, cementing their power in the US. Additionally, their lab experiments echo those seen in France in The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon , indicating that the CRM may just become the most powerful force in the world. There is also one particular flashback that returns to the pilot episode of The Walking Dead and suggests that the CRM had been in control of the helicopter that Rick had first followed into the city , deftly explaining away one of the earliest mysteries of the franchise.

As this information is dumped on Rick and Michonne, the soundtrack and flashbacks intensify until it culminates into Rick recalling Okafor's ( Craig Tate ) words to "swear on the sword... don't let it take" and a montage of bloodier kills. Each of these fleeting flashbacks encapsulates each point when Rick and Michonne become more merciless and savage, which is fitting since he spontaneously decides to ram a dagger through General Beale's hand and into his heart . And considering Michonne's eyebrow-raising reaction, it was definitely not a part of their intelligence-gathering plan.

Rick and Michonne's Romantic Journey Comes to an End

After discovering the horrifying secrets of the CRM, the power naturally decides to take them down. As the Frontliners are being briefed on their Portland mission, Michonne is inspired by her former companion Nat's (Matthew Jeffers) destructive abilities and rigs a bomb that will detonate the CRM's missiles to destroy the compound. Meanwhile, Thorne ( Lesley Ann-Brandt ) finally makes the fairly obvious connection between Rick and Michonne (or Bethune as she knows her) and attempts to stop them. In a flurry of action scenes, the two blow up the compound, Michonne kills Thorne, and Rick survives a grenade explosion .

'The Walking Dead' Never Did Enough With Terminus

While the credibility of the finale's narrative is just outright ludicrous , especially as the arbitrary voiceover explains that the Civic Republic condemns the high officials of the CRM, will reform the rest of them and will grant their citizens' freedom, the achievements of the finale lies in its thematic concerns. Throughout the episode, the notion of family and love is consistently reinforced , even as bleak ideology via Beale and Thorne arises. As Rick kills Beale, he resolutely proclaims that his son and wife brought him back, while Michonne declares that "love doesn't die" as she runs her sword through Thorne. Even the flashbacks filled with prime examples of brutality are countered with more emotional ones filled with humanity and familiar faces.

As each ally and villain is kicked off the screen, Rick and Michonne's love story prevails and their individual and combined efforts are rewarded with a nuclear family in the end. Despite the bland ending, after all the years of The Walking Dead , it is really the ultimate fan service to give these two their dream come true. It also reiterates the coziness and comfort of this series. Being the most stable presence on the flagship show, Rick became a personified shelter in the apocalyptic debris and thus his exit essentially spelled out the end of the show . As such, completing his journey back home extends the invitation to us and emphasizes that The Walking Dead is back .

Does 'The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live' Need a Season 2?

Neatly tying up all loose ends, from the CRM to Rick and Michonne's journey, The Ones Who Live doesn't really have anywhere else to go as a standalone series . In comparison, the other two spin-offs have a definite direction in which they could go, with Daryl Dixon seeing Daryl ( Norman Reedus ) potentially remaining in France and having Season 2 focus on Carol ( Melissa McBride ), while The Walking Dead: Dead City has Negan ( Jeffrey Dean Morgan ) tied up in Manhattan.

While Gimple takes an "anything is possible" attitude towards the second season of The Ones Who Live in an interview with Entertainment Weekly , with such a resolved conclusion, it doesn't seem neither feasible nor interesting enough to be worth another season. The only thread of continuity between the two seasons would be Rick and Michonne, forcing the showrunners to either create a whole new set of characters or reunite them with the people of Alexandria. It seems the only real path forward is to wait for the final cross-over of all the three spin-offs , hinted by Gimple in the same interview. "There are other very important characters in the universe that are still wandering around and alive," Gimple says. "I think it might be quite exciting to have them breathe the same air and see how long they survive together."

While it is unclear which direction the future of The Ones Who Live could possibly go in, it is clear that the fan fiction finale of the spin-off is long overdue for these two characters who have more than earned it. From the beginning, the show's more emotional pace set itself apart from the other spin-offs, and continued to do so through its fan service and heartfelt tributes to the original show. Once again, Rick and Michonne have fought tooth and nail (and unrealistically beat unbeatable odds) to find themselves finally achieving their fairy-tale ending.

The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live is available to watch on AMC and AMC+ in the U.S.

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After raising an unnervingly talented spider in secret, 12-year-old Charlotte must face the facts about her pet-and fight for her family's survival-when the once-charming creature rapidly tr... Read all After raising an unnervingly talented spider in secret, 12-year-old Charlotte must face the facts about her pet-and fight for her family's survival-when the once-charming creature rapidly transforms into a giant, flesh-eating monster. After raising an unnervingly talented spider in secret, 12-year-old Charlotte must face the facts about her pet-and fight for her family's survival-when the once-charming creature rapidly transforms into a giant, flesh-eating monster.

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Trivia Charlotte names the spider Sting after seeing a copy of J.R.R. Tolkein's The Hobbit. Sting is not the name of a spider in the Hobbit, rather the sword Bilbo uses to fight the spiders.
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Review: 'In the Land of Saints and Sinners,' where Liam Neeson once again has his vengeance

A t this point, it’s hack to refer to Liam Neeson’s “very particular set of skills,” but there’s no denying that the actor has made his bread and butter parlaying just that during the past 15 years, playing variations on a theme in an array of B-movie thrillers. Neeson has enacted bloody revenge on a train, on a plane, in the snow, on a ranch and now, in his native land, with “In the Land of Saints and Sinners,” a thriller set in Ireland during the Troubles, directed by Robert Lorenz , Clint Eastwood’s longtime producer and the director of the 2021 Neeson film “The Marksman.”

We open in Belfast in 1974, just moments before a car bombing takes six lives, including those of several children. The perpetrators, a group of Irish Republican Army foot soldiers, beat a hasty retreat for a small village, Glencolmcille in County Donegal. It just so happens to be the same place where Finbar Murphy (Neeson) has been trying to retire from a secretive life as a hit man.

This unique geographic, historical and political milieu confers a certain intrigue to this otherwise familiar fare, but the story itself is pure Western, the classic genre explicitly referenced in the plaintive score by sibling composers Diego, Nora and Lionel Baldenweg, and in the seasoned narrative beats of the script by Mark Michael McNally and Terry Loane.

Finbar is the longtime gunfighter who works by a strict moral code, looking to finally hang up his spurs and domesticate himself. When a group of baddies invade his small town and rough up the vulnerable residents, he has to put his talents to use one last time in order to protect the homestead.

Colm Meaney co-stars as Finbar’s broker, Ciarán Hinds as the local Garda (basically a sheriff) unaware of his friend’s line of work, and Jack Gleeson of “Game of Thrones” is unrecognizable as a merry young hit man with a blackly Irish sense of humor. But the most terrifying person on screen is Kerry Condon , playing the steely IRA warrior Doireann McCann (possibly inspired by the notorious Dolours Price), the leader of the gang who has brought her cohort to Glencolmcille. When her loathsome brother Curtis (Desmond Eastwood) goes missing, Doireann emerges from hiding with vengeance in her heart.

Condon was nominated for an Oscar for her role in Martin McDonagh's 2022 “The Banshees of Inisherin,” a film that took a glancing metaphorical approach to its Troubles themes. “In the Land of Saints and Sinners” is direct and obvious. This longtime national conflict comes home to roost in a small town, and while the hero and antagonist are far more similar than they think, sharing the same kind of fierce loyalty to their loved ones and personal beliefs, their goals put them at odds with each other. The political conflict is simultaneously simple but abstracted from the blood that soaks the streets of this small village.

There’s no profound political commentary in “In the Land of Saints and Sinners,” the setting providing the background and plot stakes. This is a true Western tale set among the rolling green hills of Ireland, the landscape captured beautifully by cinematographer Tom Stern. Condon is utterly captivating as a brutal villain, and no one plays a valiantly chagrined hero like Neeson, sorrowful and suffering. In the “Neeson skills” canon, “In the Land of Saints and Sinners” proves to be a gem, the performances elevating a enjoyably pulpy thriller.

Katie Walsh is a Tribune News Service film critic.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times .

Aadujeevitham: Prithviraj Sukumaran Reveals Body Transformation Journey

By Devanshi Basu

Prithviraj Sukumaran , renowned for his dedication to craft, has once again amazed audiences with his unparalleled commitment. The actor’s latest movie, Aadujeevitham: The Goat Life , not only showcases his blockbuster performance but also highlights his remarkable physical transformation.

Prithviraj Sukumaran’s body transformation journey ‘quite difficult’ for Aadujeevitham

Once in a lifetime character. Once in a lifetime Film. #Aadujeevitham ? pic.twitter.com/kvXuGkuBGU — Hazel (@Livinglight28) March 28, 2024

Prithviraj Sukumaran, in his pursuit of authenticity, underwent a grueling physical transformation for his role in Aadujeevitham. The plot demanded a portrayal of Najeeb surviving in dire conditions amidst the vast expanse of the Saudi desert.

The actor’s commitment to his role extended beyond the confines of the screen. He underwent drastic weight fluctuation not once but twice to embody the essence of Najeeb’s personal journey.

Reflecting on his experience, Sukumaran disclosed , “I had to do it twice because of the disruption in the shooting schedules. To begin with, I had to put on a lot of weight to look how Najib looked when he first arrives in Saudi Arabia. Then I had to lose around 30 kgs twice to look how he looked later. My sugar levels were seriously disturbed. It was quite difficult. I don’t think I would be able to do this again.”

Prithviraj Sukumaran’s transformation was no small feat, requiring much diligence and sacrifice. Under the guidance of expert trainers, nutritionists, and medical professionals on the set, he fasted. Some of the stretches even lasted up to 72 hours.

Aadujeevitham’s director, Blessy, commended Sukumaran’s performance. He shared that even the author of the original novel, Benyamin, found it difficult to distinguish between the actor and the character.

Soul of the movie ?❤️ #TheGoatLife #Aadujeevitham #ARR #ARRahman pic.twitter.com/iS3FgwcmcT — CJP VAIKAS (@jith_pura) March 30, 2024

Despite the monumental nature of his transformation, Prithviraj Sukumaran remained steadfast in his principles. The actor refrained from using his physical journey as a marketing tool, recognizing the sensitivity surrounding the portrayal of Najeeb’s plight.

Thus, beyond the metamorphosis lies a commitment to authenticity. And Sukumaran’s presence contributes significantly to the narrative of Aadujeevitham: The Goat Life.

When not obsessively writing about anything and everything related to cinema, you can catch her documenting nooks and crannies of Delhi.

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April 3, 2024

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Movie Review: Ken Loach, longtime chronicler of social ills, seeks a hopeful note in ‘The Old Oak’

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In so many ways, TJ Ballantyne is a classic Ken Loach hero: a working-class, middle-aged man trying to simply eke out a dignified living, but meeting obstacles at each turn — a victim of unforgiving social realities that leave people like him in the dust.

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Like many of these Loach protagonists, TJ can’t get a break — even from gravity, as when he tries to fix the wooden letter “K” that rests above the Old Oak, the dilapidated pub he runs in a former mining town that’s been in decline for decades. Talk about decline: That letter keeps tilting downward, even when TJ fixes it with a broomstick. He turns away and it simply falls again.

Loach has never been subtle with his messaging, and why should he start now, at the apparent end of his filmmaking career? The 87-year-old director, who’s made nearly 30 features, has said “The Old Oak” is likely the last. He’s said that before, but assuming it’s true, the film is a poignant and moving coda to a career spent chronicling personal indignities amid broader social ills like poverty and unemployment.

This image released by Zeitgeist Films shows Dave Turner in a scene from

And now, the migrant crisis. Loach and screenwriter Paul Laverty address this through an unusual friendship between TJ and Yara, a young Syrian woman and refugee who ends up, with her family, in the town, to the hostility of many. For once, a man like TJ and his fellow villagers, all struggling, are not the neediest in the story. There are others who need even more help. In this story of two communities at odds, Loach seeks to end a trilogy of films set in northeastern England on a message of conciliation and hope.

We begin somewhere near Durham, in 2016. Syrian war refugees have been arriving in Britain as they have elsewhere in Europe, and it’s no surprise that some have been sent to a desolate former mining town where housing is dirt cheap.

Some of the locals are furious about the intrusion. In a devastating pre-credits sequence, the busload of refugees arrives to taunts from the townspeople, who say they weren’t even warned. “Who are they? Where are they from? More Muslims?” some shout out, profanities added. Others, like TJ and family friend Laura, try to help get the families settled.

Yara (Ebla Mari), who’s in her early 20s, has arrived with her mother. Her father, who is either imprisoned in Syria or dead, had gifted her with a camera, and she’s using it to document her arrival (the sequence is shown through her photos). An angry man in a football jersey tussles with her and her camera drops to the ground, broken.

During their research, Loach and Laverty noticed that many pubs in former mining towns were now shuttered. In their story, the Old Oak is the last remaining pub, and moreover the only gathering space left in town. Over pints poured by TJ, men he grew up with — Charlie, for example, whose wife is ailing and whose house has plummeted in value, and Vic and Eddy, the angriest of the bunch, complain about the interlopers. “We can’t even take care of our own kids,” they say.

The transition is ugly. Young boys are bullied at school. When a local girl falls ill, Yara tries to help by accompanying her home to rest; the mother arrives home and throws the young Syrian violently out of the house.

For TJ, whose marriage has failed and who’s estranged from his son, things go from bad to worse. His only companion is a beloved former stray dog who appeared in his life at his darkest moment; she is constantly threatened by nasty dogs owned by thugs. A former miner himself, he’s holding onto his pub by the skin of his teeth. And now, some of the locals want to use his empty back room to hold a meeting and air grievances about the migrants. He makes excuses.

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Further conflict ensues when TJ agrees to use the back room for a far different purpose: to serve free meals, as a way of building community, and a throwback to solidarity during labor unrest decades earlier. This works beautifully for many, but the most negative voices in the town — in scenes that occasionally feel a tad heavy-handed — continue to sow discord and harass the Syrians, all while denying they are racist. “All we want is our pub back,” they say.

Worse is to come for the Old Oak, which essentially becomes the main character here: a connection to a happier past for the village, a key part of a troubled present, and a source of possible hope for a harmonious future.

And it is indeed hope that infuses the closing scenes, unlike many a Loach film. Yes, there are a few too many speeches that sound like, well, speeches rather than dialogue. And the resolution arrives just a bit too quickly and easily.

But these seem like forgivable sins. After nearly six decades of filmmaking, hope is not too bad a place to end up.

“The Old Oak,” a Zeitgeist Films release, is unrated by the Motion Picture Association. Running time: 113 minutes. Three stars out of four.

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‘Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire’ Review: A Godzilla Spectacle Minus One Thing: A Reason to Exist

The clash-of-the-titans climax lifts off into the awesome zone, but until then the fifth entry in the MonsterVerse is overly busy boilerplate.

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

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‘Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire’ Review: A Godzilla Spectacle Minus One Thing: A Reason to Exist 6 days ago

GODZILLA X KONG: THE NEW EMPIRE, from left: Godzilla, Kong, 2024. © Warner Bros. / Courtesy Everett Collection

Watching “ Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire ,” I realized that the movie, a standard overly busy and mediocre blockbuster with a pretty awesome wow of a clash-of-the-titans climax, was demonstrating one of the essential principles of Hollywood movie culture today. Namely: All blockbuster movies are now connected!

In other words, Kong is facing a force who’s exactly like the villain in “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire”!

Then there’s Godzilla. He spends the film preparing for an apocalyptic showdown by traveling from one place to the next and absorbing radiation, first from a nuclear facility, then from an undersea battle with a flower-headed monster so radioactive it’s iridescent. By the time Godzilla is done with all this, his very being has been suffused with radioactive power, to the point that he literally turns pink .

In other words, he looks like he’s having his “Barbie” moment.

The film’s central character, Dr. Ilene Andrews ( Rebecca Hall ), while she’s busy charting all this, is most invested in the fate of Jia (Kaylee Hottle), the adoptive daughter she rescued after the Iwi people of Skull Island were destroyed. As it happens, the Hollow Earth is home to another tribe of Iwi (there’s a lot going on in that basement), who Jia can communicate with telepathically. And she turns out to be a kind of chosen one, since Jia will prove the key figure in activating Mothra (now reimagined in shimmery designer gold), Godzilla’s old nemesis-turned-ally, who will be instrumental in the outcome of the final clash…

The thing that connects “Godzilla x Kong” to last year’s run of superhero films — the ones that everybody complained about — is that, just like them, the movie can make your head hurt. But not because it’s too convoluted to follow. It’s because the real convolution is: Why are we supposed to care? About any of this?

The fact that we might not makes “Godzilla x Kong” feel like one of those “Jurassic Park” sequels where everyone is huffing and puffing about the fate of the world and “relevant” issues of genetic engineering — but we’re just there for the ride, which now feels like it has a study sheet attached. I guess this is the part of the review where I’m supposed to say that Brian Tyree Henry , as the wide-eyed tech-whistleblower-turned-conspiracy-blogger Bernie Hayes, and Dan Stevens , as the snarky British veterinarian Trapper, are a riot, but it felt to me like the two actors were mostly filling space. Rebecca Hall, in a no-nonsense haircut, uses her avid severity well, and Kaylee Hottle, as Jia, has a luminous presence, but I’m sorry, every time the film summons a human dimension it feels like boilerplate.

You could say that the qualifier, the one that’s always there in a Godzilla movie, is that in the kaiju films of Japan the stories don’t matter either; they are often nonsense. But not always. The original “Godzilla,” in 1954, was schlock with a fairy-tale sci-fi gravity; that was true, as well, of the other two standouts of the early kaiju films, “Mothra” (1961) and “Destroy All Monsters” (1968). And it may turn out to be a stroke of karmic bad luck that “Godzilla x Kong” is coming out right on the heels of “Godzilla Minus One,” the movie that rocked the world of monster cinema. It had the lyrical majesty of those earlier films, as well as a story, rooted in Japan’s World War II trauma, that was actually linear and moving. It reminded you that these creatures could carry an emotional grandeur.

Kong unfreezes himself, and proves once again to be the fiercest primate around. And Godzilla outradiates his foes, even as he’s now so defined by that pink glow that it’s almost as if he’s being set up as a new kind of allegorical monster: not a metaphor for the bomb, but a metaphor for…the return of responsible nuclear energy? Stay tuned for the next eye-popping and meaningless sequel.

Reviewed at Warner Bros. Screening Room, March 27, 2024. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 115 MIN.

Production: A Warner Bros. Pictures release of a Legendary Pictures production. Producers: Mary Parent, Alex Garcia, Eric McLeod, Thomas Tull, Brian Rogers. Executive producers: Yoshimitsu Banno, Kenji Okuhira, Dan Lin, Roy Lee, Adam Wingard, Jen Conroy, Jay Ashenfelter.
Crew: Director: Adam Wingard. Screenplay: Terry Rossio, Simon Barrett, Jeremy Slater. Camera: Ben Seresin. Editor: Josh Schaeffer. Music: Tom Holkenborg, Antonio Di Iorio.
With: Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, Dan Stevens, Kaylee Hottle, Alex Ferns, Fala Chen, Rachel House, Ron Smyck, Chantelle Jamieson, Greg Hatton.

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COMMENTS

Once movie review & film summary (2007)
Marketa Irglova and Glen Hansard star in "Once." I'm not at all surprised that my esteemed colleague Michael Phillips of the Tribune selected John Carney's "Once" as the best film of 2007. I gave it my Special Jury Prize, which is sort of an equal first; no movie was going to budge " Juno " off the top of my list.
Once
Movie Info. A vacuum repairman (Glen Hansard) moonlights as a street musician and hopes for his big break. One day a Czech immigrant (Marketa Irglova), who earns a living selling flowers ...
Once (film)
Once is a 2007 Irish romantic musical drama film written and directed by John Carney.The film stars Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová as two struggling musicians in Dublin, Ireland.Hansard and Irglová had previously performed music as the Swell Season, and composed and performed the film's original songs.. Once spent years in development with the Irish Film Board and was made for a budget of ...
The Movie Review: 'Once'
The Movie Review: 'Once' By Christopher Orr. June 25, 2007. ... Murphy, who before taking up acting was a nearly-signed rock singer, had been slated to star in and produce Once, an indie-rock ...
Once (2007)
9/10. "A Magical Film of love, music, song...and a Hoover Vacuum!" screenwriter-14 17 May 2007. ONCE is a film to see and cherish for the magic of song and music combined in the setting of Dublin for a young man and woman who meet and who make wonderful music together.
Once
Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Oct 18, 2008. Christopher Orr The New Republic. TOP CRITIC. In an era when Hollywood has largely lost the ability to distinguish between romance and sex, Once ...
Once (2007)
Once: Directed by John Carney. With Glen Hansard, Markéta Irglová, Hugh Walsh, Gerard Hendrick. A modern-day musical about a busker and an immigrant and their eventful week in Dublin, as they write, rehearse and record songs that tell their love story.
Once
May 13, 2007. DON'T get John Carney, the Irish-born director of "Once," started on the topic of movie musicals. "I like 'Guys and Dolls,' 'Singin' in the Rain' and 'A Star Is ...
The Independent Critic
Such a weird and wonderful thing, love is. "Once," winner of the World Cinema Audience Award at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, is, without a doubt, the finest musical love story ever captured on film...and yet, in a strange and amazing way, "Once" isn't really even about love at all. It is a film about falling in love, being in love, longing ...
Once: EW review
Once: EW review. Just about everyone with a heartbeat has had this tingly experience. You're at a movie, and a song, as if by magic, breaks through the surface of the drama. Suddenly, you're ...
Once Movie Review
What you will—and won't—find in this movie. Parents need to know that Once is an endearing indie romance. Although there's a fair amount of swearing -- particularly "f--k" -- hardly anything else would raise a flag for teens and up. In fact, it's one of the few love stories that doesn't require its leads to get naked or fall in….
Once
But Once brims with small pleasures that pay major dividends. Carney, who played bass for the Frames till 1993, is a filmmaker to watch. Carney, who played bass for the Frames till 1993, is a ...
Once Review
18 Oct 2007. Running Time: NaN minutes. Certificate: 15. Original Title: Once. Every year, while the big studio titans battle for box-office supremacy, a few indie whippersnappers manage to weave ...
Once
Once - Metacritic. Summary A modern day musical set on the streets of Dublin. Featuring Glen Hansard from the Irish band "The Frames," the film tells the story of a street musician and a Czech immigrant during an eventful week as they write, rehearse and record songs that reveal their unique love story. (Fox Searchlight)
Once (2007)
Once (2007) A- SDG Original source: National Catholic Register At once delicate and gritty, wistful and deeply satisfying, John Carney's Once is a intimate little film that, like a favorite song, you would rather play for someone than try to describe. Not just because the experience loses in the telling, but also because the joy is in the discovery, the in-the-moment immediacy, the barely ...
‎Once (2007) directed by John Carney • Reviews, film
A vacuum repairman moonlights as a street musician and hopes for his big break. One day a Czech immigrant, who earns a living selling flowers, approaches him with the news that she is also an aspiring singer-songwriter. The pair decide to collaborate, and the songs that they compose reflect the story of their blossoming love.
Once
Movies. This article is more than 16 years old. Review. Once. This article is more than 16 years old (15) Xan Brooks @XanBrooks. Thu 18 Oct 2007 19.13 EDT. Share.
'Once' movie review: irresistible musical tells story of a Czech
Touching, heartfelt, irresistible; John Carney´s Once is anything but a traditional musical but ultimately achieves the same effect as the best in the genre.
Once (2007)
Synopsis. An unnamed, thirty-something Dublin busker (listed in the credits as "Guy", played by Glen Hansard) sings and plays guitar on Grafton Street, a Dublin shopping district. He struggles with the trials of performing on the street, including chasing after a heroin addict (Darren Healy) who attempts to steal his earnings. Lured by his ...
Parent reviews for Once
age 13+. A great movie in which music is a main character along with the actors. The two leads are actual musicians and the sings performed are their own real life songs, which gives the music great depth and meaning. It's not the typical boy meets girl, boy wants girl, boy loses girl, and boy gets girl movie.
Once review
First immortalised in the 2007 film by the same name, written by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, who perform together as the Swell Season, the musical debuted on Broadway in 2011, and won ...
Jerry Seinfeld once joked about Pop-Tarts. He's now made a film ...
In 2012, Jerry Seinfeld appeared in a New York Times video where he's seen breaking down how he wrote his famous "Pop Tart Joke."
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