A movie as curiously effective as it is simple, Once is a boy-meets-girl story pared down to its fairy-tale essence and related mostly through song. The songbirds are an Irish street musician and a Czech immigrant — the movie is so minimalist it doesn't even bother to give them names — and Once doesn't even concern itself much with the demands of the whole will-they-or-won't-they schemata. What the film does offer us is nothing more or less than the pleasure of its characters' company, and that turns out to be plenty.
Director John Carney has described Once as an "art-house musical," which accurately sums up a movie where the characters' frequent bursting into song is a natural function of who they are and perfectly in keeping with the film's low-key, kitchen-sink reality. We follow the Guy (Glen Hansard) and the Girl (Marketa Irglova) as they meet, warm up to one another and communicate their lives and their relationship through a series of songs sung on street corners, buses, in stores, cars, bedrooms and occasionally even recording studios.
It doesn't hurt that the music itself is extremely appealing — a sensitive, mostly folk-rock-ish blend of ballads and melodious, mid-tempo rockers — as are the performers. Irglova exudes an endearing Eastern European awkwardness, while Hansard (singer-songwriter for the Dublin-based band The Frames) charms us with a perpetually wide-open face and a rich, round quiver recalling a young Cat Stevens. The movie doesn't ultimately do much other than watch its working class heroes as they somewhat aimlessly go about their business — paying the rent, dreaming of something better and singing, often brilliantly, for their supper — but Once makes even the smallest moment seem alive with possibility.
Once (R) Glenn Hansard, Marketa Irglova, Bill Hodnett, Danuse Ktrestova and Marcella Plunkett. Opens June 22 at local theaters. 3.5 stars
