"Once" at last

I wrote about "Once" half a year ago, listened to the soundtrack often enough but gave up hope of the film being screened in Singapore. It wasn't until I met my friend Nigel for lunch on Friday - during which he talked about "Once" and how he loved it - that I decided I should get round to watching it.

"Once" is set in Dublin, a city that attracts and welcomes traveling musicians, like Mexican guitarists Rodrigo and Gabriela. Our protagonists are a pair of musicians who meet on a street, though only one of them is actually playing music. The Irish guy is a street busker, singing and playing his guitar for passers-by, while the girl, a Czech immigrant, sells flowers from a basket. She sees him singing late one night, and intrigued by the song and his passionate singing, asks him questions like who he wrote it for and what happened to the woman. When she finds out he fixes Hoovers for a living, she insists that he help her with hers, and returns the next day to the same spot, dragging her dark blue Hoover behind her like a small pet. He's a little annoyed at her persistence until he finds out she's a classically trained pianist and wants to hear her play. They wind up at a music store where the owner kindly lets her play the piano for free since she can't afford to own one. When she plays Mendelssohn for the guy, he's stunned by what he hears. Eventually, he offers up the score of a song he's written, sings her the basic chords, and as he begins strumming his guitar, she joins in with the piano. He sings the first few lines, and when she tentatively adds an accompanying harmony, he's a little surprised but pleased. It's an amazing scene that begs repeat viewings - the music seems simple but the melody is strong and full of yearning; the lyrics hint at the story to come; the guy and girl get caught up in the profound experience of playing a song together for the first time and realizing how much they enjoy it. It's such a genuine, unexpected moment for them and for the audience.

What I love about the film is how everything appears so unrehearsed and unforced. The actors aren't professionals and this could have been a documentary for all I knew. It's true to life, where drama doesn't always escalate in a romance that begins at a wrong time. Despite their intense connection through music, there are other people in their lives - he's thinking about a former girlfriend and she has an estranged husband.

(Skip the jump if you don't want to read any spoilers.)

It's a bittersweet end where after she helps him make a recording to take to London (before this, he decides ultimately to look up his old girlfriend in London and become a professional musician there), he wants to spend his last few hours with her, but she backs out of meeting him. The end is little more than a kiss on a cheek and a farewell gift of a piano. He doesn't even get to say goodbye to her. But when her face lights up at the sight of the piano, when he smiles as he walks to catch his plane, thinking about her seeing the piano; when she plays the piano while her husband, newly arrived in Dublin, plays with their daughter, I thought it a perfect ending. The final moment shows her finishing her song on the piano and then gazing wistfully out the window. Understatement is a beautiful thing in a movie! As the music of "Falling Slowly" wound down, the screen became a blur within seconds, and my nose needed tending to as well.

Despite the protests of a few people who complained that too little of the guy's and girl's attraction to each other is shown - did they really care for each other that deeply? - there's actually a scene that tells you the answer (on her part, anyway), if you know Czech. I don't, and I had to read up on her response to his question "Do you love your husband?". She replies in Czech, "The one I love is you." Add the setting of Irish sea-cliffs, the meaning of her untranslated answer to him would leave anyone breathless.

I re-read Salon's review and still very much like what it highlights - the delicacy and modest tones of the film, the strength of the characters - particularly the girl's - and the very real and difficult lives they lead. The film "reminds us -- particularly those of us over 40 -- how complicated young people's lives can be: When most of your life is still ahead of you, the fear of making the wrong choices can be a burden, even more so when you have a child."

A friend said the film has a weak title. "Once," it's too simple, too easy, she said. But when you pair it with the movie's tagline - "How often do you find the right person?" - the title is perfect.

Posted by Monoceros at December 23, 2007 10:56 PM