Sorry for the delay. C&C always welcome.
"Ne...Miluju Tebe..."*I have a confession to make: I love films with songs in them. Especially at the end. They make me cry. Whether they be full blown musicals, or just "Up Where We Belong" at the end of An Officer And A Gentleman, I’m a sucker for 'em. The first record I was ever given was the "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" soundtrack for heaven's sake, and you should see me blub when Jennifer Grey gives Patrick Swayze a little nod and they finally do The Lift…
Anyway, if one film in recent years was ever guaranteed to get the Orson Bottom Lip a-trembling, it’s writer-director John Carney's
Once. Made for £100,000 in 17 days, it tells of an unnamed Guy (Glen Hansard, the
Frames frontman whose sole other film credit is as the guitarist in The Commitments), a hard-up busker and part time vacuum cleaner repairman, whose angsty wailing on the streets of Dublin draws the attention of Girl (debutante Marketa Irglova), a waif-like immigrant flower seller trying to make ends meet for her young daughter. By happy coincidence, not only is Girl a musician too, but her hoover needs fixing. It's clear Girl is hitting on Guy, but he's oblivious, blinded by a lost love who's moved to London. Just to make the point, when Girl takes him to the local music shop where the owner lets her play the display models, he asks her to join in on a love song that's clearly not for her.
Though their romance is achingly platonic, musically they complete each other, and they borrow money to make a demo with a group of fellow buskers as session men ("Is it Lizzy? We only do Lizzy"). And that's pretty much it. Sounds simple really, doesn’t it?
And it is. It's perhaps the simplest film I've seen in a long time – there's no twist (apart from the convention-defying ending), there are no Guy Wins Girl/Guy Loses Girl/Guy Wins Girl Back hoops to jump through, there's not even a box-office-friendly snog. But what there is is music – it's a far cry from Moulin Rouge, but unlike that, and pretty much any other musical you care to mention, the songs
belong. No-one sings here unless they're supposed to, unless they would in real life. And what songs they are – their first fumbling, tentative rendition of
Falling Slowly was an Oscar winner, and probably the best one for twenty years. So that’s it – not much of a plot, no money, no technical pyrotechnics to speak of, and no happy ending (©Hollywood). But it does have a song called
Broken-Hearted Hoover Fixer Sucker Guy in it, and for that it deserves to be seen. At least once.
*"We Do The Shake and Vac"
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