I really enjoyed this movie and the music. If you put it off because it's basically a "musical" (certainly not in any traditional sense you may be thinking of) or because you thought it was some sappy romantic piece of trash, know that...
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I really enjoyed this movie and the music. If you put it off because it's basically a "musical" (certainly not in any traditional sense you may be thinking of) or because you thought it was some sappy romantic piece of trash, know that you are wrong and should really give this a chance. At first, I had wished that it hadn't been filmed with that handheld, documentary style, but then it just sucked me in and I didn't notice it. Great performances, great tunes, great simple, sweet, & short story.

This movie is so amazing. It is so far off the charts that my score isn't even affected even though I couldn't understand the beginning of it the first two times I watched it. It is so beautiful. Ireland is the perfect spot for it. The actors...
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This movie is so amazing. It is so far off the charts that my score isn't even affected even though I couldn't understand the beginning of it the first two times I watched it. It is so beautiful. Ireland is the perfect spot for it. The actors chemistry was spectacular. It will make you laugh it will make you cry. It's so imperfect that it's perfect. I want the soundtrack and I want it now. It's story being written so the music is a part of it was genius. The writer and director, I want to see more of his films.

I picked up this film because it was a musical and set in Ireland...two pluses for me. The film did not disappoint in either regard. The filming was very natural, hectic at times, voyeuristic at times as well. It felt like you were there,...
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I picked up this film because it was a musical and set in Ireland...two pluses for me. The film did not disappoint in either regard. The filming was very natural, hectic at times, voyeuristic at times as well. It felt like you were there, walking down the street, or playing music, simply like you were there in little Dublin town. To boot, they got some really got shots of the surrounding landscape. As for the music, it was just great. They call it songwriter music but I look at it as soothing, coffeehouse music. It's whimsical, poetic, intelligent, honest and I love it. I've already got my music on order. As for the actual story, I love the honesty in this as well. Both are still nursing old hurts while discovering an interest/love in each other. However, like real life, you don't always end up spending the rest of your life with that person and that doesn't mean it's a failure or a waste of time. Clearly, by merely meeting each other, they affected a change and, though this change wasn't "happily ever after", it was good and true.

I have a terrible soft spot for music (yes if you read my reviews I've used this line one other time in my review for Joe vs. the Volcano and these two soft spots are very near to each other).
The music is what this film is really about....
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I have a terrible soft spot for music (yes if you read my reviews I've used this line one other time in my review for Joe vs. the Volcano and these two soft spots are very near to each other).
The music is what this film is really about. The main characters aren't even given names that is how important they really are to the overall theme presented by this movie. Yes, it is about the music. Some people will review this as a love story, two ships passing in the night. Some will portray it as a coming of age story. But neither of those fully encompasses the hidden passion of this film: the music. They, our heroes, meet not as lovers of each other, per say (although the tension for this possibility is apparent) but they meet as lovers of music. As souls in search of the deeper, less confusing world that exists just in a collection of keys on a piano. What is so beautiful about this film is that it is insanely simple, but like the still rivers, very deep. It is these conflicting dynamics: human emotion, human fragility, love, dreams, lust, that are soaked into the mortar of the music and how such beautiful songs are built into cathedrals and dark wells.
The music tells it's own story while the characters are trying to get on with their lives, this is in of itself a new perspective on the meaning of the word musical.
A beautiful film. Gritty, natural, real, and yet that's part of the illusion created for us beings to further obscure the radiant power of the underlying theme presented by the music itself.
I would consider this an excellent date movie, because of the power of what is said through the music.