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Average User Score: 9 (27 sources)

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V_Translanka

-1

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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...
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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.

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Posted nov 13, 2008 2:15 pm pt

woundedwindow

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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...
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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.

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Posted apr 17, 2008 7:57 pm pt

supercin721

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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,...
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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.

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Posted feb 8, 2008 8:12 am pt

alichino

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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....
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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.

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Posted jul 2, 2007 7:04 am pt

HendrixFan42

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I usually can't stand musicals. They are corny, superficial, campy, and asinine. However, this film is not really a musical, at least not in the traditional sense. There are no spontaneous, elaborate song and dance numbers here. It is low budget,...
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I usually can't stand musicals. They are corny, superficial, campy, and asinine. However, this film is not really a musical, at least not in the traditional sense. There are no spontaneous, elaborate song and dance numbers here. It is low budget, with a gritty video quality and realistic, natural seeming dialogue. Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova are excellent as,respectively, the Dublin street musician who is still missing his ex, who is now living in London and the young mother who rarely spends time with her uncaring husband. However, despite a lean running time of 85 minutes, the movie sometimes drags and the songs sometimes run too long. However most of the music is very good, especially the songs "When Your Mind's Made Up" and "Falling Slowly". A great movie for people who only think they detest musicals.

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Posted jun 29, 2007 10:52 am pt

• [+] Entertainment Weekly
  
  100
  Until Once, 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.

  by Owen Gleiberman | Read Full Review »
• [+] The Onion (A.V. Club)
  
  100
  In its own subdued, mellow way, Once is just about perfect.

  by Nathan Rabin | Read Full Review »
• [+] Wall Street Journal
  
  100
  Once proves to be as smart and funny as it is sweet; it swirls with ambiguity and conflict beneath a simple surface. In all of 88 minutes, Mr. Carney's singular fable follows its guy and girl through a week of musical and emotional growth that could suffice for a lifetime.

  by Joe Morgenstern | Read Full Review »
• [+] Los Angeles Times
  
  100
  The music is so rich and completely satisfying and the characters so appealing Once makes us believe that this is all happening right in front of our eyes. We fall for each of these young people at the precise moment they are falling for each other, and what could be better than that?

  by Kenneth Turan | Read Full Review »
• [+] Chicago Tribune
  
  100
  It's a very small piece, working in a deceptively casual storytelling style. But it's my favorite music film since "Stop Making Sense," and it's more emotionally satisfying than any of the Broadway-to-Hollywood adaptations made in the last 20 years.

  by Michael Phillips | Read Full Review »
• [+] Chicago Reader
  
  100
  The songs don't advance the narrative lyrically so much as follow the two characters' uncertain relationship through the slow realization of their themes; in particular a scene in which they first jam together in the back room of a music store is a gem.

  by J.R. Jones | Read Full Review »
• [+] Boston Globe
  
  100
  Once is the first rock musical that actually makes sense. People don't burst into song in this movie because the orchestra's swelling out of nowhere. The guy and the girl are working musicians -- or they'd like to be, if they could make a living at it -- and they're played by working musicians.

  by Ty Burr | Read Full Review »
• [+] Seattle Post-Intelligencer
  
  100
  A miracle of a movie that is both fairy tale and slice of life.

  by Bill White | Read Full Review »
• [+] Chicago Sun-Times
  
  100
  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.

  by Roger Ebert | Read Full Review »
• [+] Portland Oregonian
  
  91
  Music aside, what finally puts Once over and makes it a film you can watch more than once is its slight but thoroughly credible realism.

  by Shawn Levy | Read Full Review »
• [+] Baltimore Sun
  
  91
  There's not a false moment within the film's 88-minute running time, nor many that could be done any better.

  by Chris Kaltenbach | Read Full Review »
• [+] The New York Times
  
  90
  Its low-key affect and decidedly human scale endow Once with an easy, lovable charm that a flashier production could never have achieved. The formula is simple: two people, a few instruments, 88 minutes and not a single false note.

  by A.O. Scott | Read Full Review »
• [+] Austin Chronicle
  
  89
  Ultimately, Once transcends even its own ambitions, becoming a complex meditation on relationships, Irish culture, and music.

  by Toddy Burton | Read Full Review »
• [+] Rolling Stone
  
  88
  It's a magical, beguiling wonder.

  by Peter Travers | Read Full Review »
• [+] The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
  
  88
  Most movies have music, some movies are musicals, but very few movies combine the two with the grace and pure eloquence of Once.

  by Rick Groen | Read Full Review »