Entertainment Ave! In Your House - A movie/DVD review of Once.

Once Movie Stats & Links
Starring:	Glen Hansard, Marketa Irglova
MPAA Rated:	R (but it shouldn't be)
Released By:	Fox Home Entertainment
Web Sites:	www.foxsearchlight.com/once myspace.com/theswellseason
Kiddie Movie:	I'd say 12+, especially if they love music.
Date Movie:	It's a sweet love story.
Gratuitous Sex:	Some talk.
Gratuitous Violence:	Nah.
Action:	Nah.
Laughs:	A couple of chuckles.
Memorable Scene:	In the recording studio.
Memorable Quote:	Too many little ones to quote.
Directed By:	John Carney
Cool Things About the DVD
Learn French!	Or Spanish, it's got the normal Audio choices.
Buy a New TV!	Will you just buy a widescreen TV already.
Buy a New Stereo!	The movie is about music and it sounds better with a real stereo.
Anything Else!	You get a sinking boat-load of commentary stuff, more analysis of Guy and Girl, and the making of thing.

After seeing "Once" in the theater I was looking forward to the DVD release just to see if the movie would hold up on my small screen, and I'll simply say this movie is great to watch anywhere.

The story is simple. There’s this guy, listed in the credits as "The Guy," played by Glen Hansard. He’s a street musician playing guitar and is also a vacuum cleaner repairman. In his life he prefers music. Then there’s this girl, listed in the credits as "The Girl," played by Marketa Irglova. She likes the guy’s music and needs her vacuum cleaner fixed. Both of them are in strained relationships with the guy’s girl in London while the girl’s guy is back in the Czech Republic. She too loves music and plays piano (making it difficult for her to be a street musician I guess), but as she questions him about his music and relationship, they find themselves at a music store where they collaborate on one of the guy’s songs.

And so, for a week, a relationship blooms as the guy and girl get to know each other, write music, and as the guy announces he’s is going to London to see if he can get his other girl back, they decide to get together a make-shift band, rent some studio time, and record the guy’s songs with the hopes and dreams they will be released for the masses to hear.

And all of the while that the story is going on you get treated to some fantastic music. You see, unlike your typical musical where people are singing songs about what is going on pretty much interrupting the flow of the story, the music in "Once" is easily intertwined with the story because the guy and girl, and with their band, are creating their songs as musicians and a band, and it so works perfectly. There is an innocence to the both of them, as well as some naivety about recording music, but in a scene that was perfect, there, in the recording studio was a band who knew absolutely nothing about making a recording, with an engineer/producer who at first pegs them for a bunch of crappy musicians, but then you see the music played, the engineer perks up realizing the music is really good, and there is a tender moment between the guy and the girl that makes you really hope the two of them hook up because they seem so perfect for each other.

If you are a fan of music and get a little sappy with a nice love story I really urge you to get the "Once" DVD. Glen Hansard is utterly fantastic as the guy, still pining for his girl in London, yet wondering if there might be something between him and this girl. And Marketa Irglova, I can’t say enough about her either. She’s adorable as the immigrant, with her own relationship issues and wondering about her feelings for the guy. As they make the music together it is almost magical, and yet, in a way, sad.

As far as the DVD extras go, you get the standard fare of things like how it was made, a deeper look at the characters, and extensive commentary dealing both with the movie itself and the music (which I have to say as much as I wanted to re-watch the movie with the commentary, I skipped it). For me, though, I loved the Animated video for "Broken Hearted Hoover Fixer Sucker Guy." It was very funny.