Once | The Week

last updated 8 January 2015

Once is so sweet and hypnotic that 'œyou'll probably want to see it twice,' said Robert Wilonsky in The Village Voice. Glen Hansard plays a Dublin busker who sings his winsome compositions on street corners. MarkÃ©ta IrglovÃ¡ is a Czech immigrant and classically trained pianist who cleans houses to support her young child. You'd hardly believe that this unassuming movie about how they cross paths, collaborate, and commiserate (but never have sex) would be 'œone of the greatest musicals of the modern age.' Director John Carney understands what creators of other latter–day musicals don't, said Joe Morgenstern in The Wall Street Journal. It's all about the music. 'œAt a time when movie musicals have come to be synonymous with emotional and visual extravagance—the super–mega–over–the–topness of Chicago or Dreamgirls—Carney has dared to take everything down to its essence.' Hansard and IrglovÃ¡ aren't professional actors, but they are professional musicians. Their characters don't burst into song for no reason, as people in other musicals do. They sing because that's how they communicate best. And what songs they sing, said Owen Gleiberman in Entertainment Weekly. Hansard himself wrote these 'œsoftly gorgeous odes to troubled hearts,' and the two performers render them beautifully. The sad 'œIf You Want Me' and syncopated 'œWhen Your Mind's Made Up' will stick with you long after you leave the theater.

Rating: R