The Pelican’s Perch

Once
Score: 9.5/10
I wrote about Once a month and a day ago, saying how it looked like my kind of movie, one I’d want to watch over and over, and that the soundtrack was amazing.  I then spent all this time after that post trying desperately to see it anywhere.  The art house here in Kansas City, The Tivoli, finally started showing the movie and I literally cancelled all my plans and drove 30 minutes into the city on a whim to finally see it.  It’d be an understatement to say it was just as good as I expected.

Once is one of most heartbreaking and beautiful films I’ve seen in a very long time.  The fact that over half of the 13 songs on the soundtrack were performed in full during the movie and it never felt bogged down is a feat in itself.  The performances of Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova are both amazing and surprisingly genuine considering neither had acted before.  The quick backstory on the film is that the director, John Carney, was the former bassist of Glen’s band The Frames, and wanted to use Glen and Marketa’s music, which mostly comes from their collaboration album The Swell Season, with other actors, but when time came to shoot he just decided to have them play the two characters.

Once almost instantly captivates you as the first scene in the movie is Glen playing on the street until he is suddenly robbed and after catching the kid who did it, we begin our journey with him, rooting for him the whole way.  He soon meets Marketa and reason I said it was heartbreaking was that the chemistry is almost immediately present between the two, but since both have had recent bad spells with their last loves, Marketa’s husband recently left her and Glen just split from the girl of his dreams, they never act on this chemistry and let both their shy sides dominate.  It was insanely frustrating to watch, but charming none the less. 

The rest of the movie is Glen and Marketa hanging out more and more, with Glen figuring out Marketa can play the piano so they start writing songs together until they finally decide to take out a loan and record an album.  I don’t want to give away any more of the plot, even though it’s really as simple as plots get, but the way it is filmed, allowing the audience to be by their side every step of the way, as if we were standing there next to them in the music shop the first time they played together, separates this movie from the rest for me.  And the funny thing is, you’re so captivated following the characters, you fail to realize they didn’t even have names.  The credits show simply guy and girl. 

It was inevitable I’d love this movie.  An aspiring musician, who plays nothing but acoustic guitar, and is trying to make it in the music business?  That’s me.  A hopeless romantic who writes all his songs based on the love he’s felt or lost.  Check.  Meets an amazing girl and they play music together.  I wish that was me.  I just sat there watching this movie with a smile on my face thinking, all I’m missing is the girl, but this is slowly becoming the story of my life, and thinking of the label and my album in the very near future, I couldn’t help but be excited throughout the movie.  And for all of you that can’t relate to this movie as much as me, I took my mom to go see it with me and she cried throughout most the second half of the movie and gave me a rave review after the movie was over saying how much she loved it.

So, like I said a month ago, and I mean it even more now that I’ve seen it, this is a movie you must see.  Especially in this time of summer sequels and crappy other films, there’s really no competition.  You can bet I’ll be picking this one up the day it comes out on DVD.

Falling Slowly

When Your Mind’s Made Up

[youtube sLiQFbXC2pk]

P.S.  That email interview with Glen, which I figured may have just been lost, should be coming back to me in a week or two.  I just got an email back saying they’re sending it out to Glen this week, so check back soon for that.  Now go see this movie!