twenty-three

Being a sucker for large web marketing campaigns and catchy movie trailers, I stumbled upon a little Irish movie called "Once" this past week. What an amazing revelation it has been. Maybe you remember what it was like the first time you watched "Garden State" or saw "Rent". The music took you somewhere you didn’t know you needed to go, but once you were there, it felt like home and like you could never leave.

That’s what "Once" has done to me.

Set up as a story of a street musician (busker) on the streets of Dublin, it’s hard to really put into words how the simplicity of the story really works, but it just does. It’s not a crazy, plot-twisting, heart-wrenching drama. It’s just real. The plot is really just a vehicle for the music. This is a musical in the best sense of the word. As the characters move through their days, they write songs together, share ideas, share their stories, through music. From learning a new song in a music shop ("Falling Slowly"), to writing lyrics over an established instrumental track ("If You Want Me"), to the process of recording a demo in the studio ("When Your Mind’s Made Up"), these amazing songs shape and weave the story together.

The great thing is that neither Glen Hansard or Marketa Irglova are actors. They’re musicians whose friend John Carney asked them to help create music for the soundtrack. As the project developed, they found themselves in front of the camera and while they don’t have acting experience, they play their parts so naturally because the songs and the stories are their songs and their stories. It works so brilliantly.

It’s a movie like this, in its simplicity and with its heart that inspires me. I have been rekindling my love for just listening to music, really stopping and listening. It’s music like this that makes it worthwhile. It makes me want to start writing my own music, to start singing along loudly, to pick up my guitar and just play. That’s good music.

Check this movie out. Maybe you won’t respond so excitedly as I have. Maybe the coarse Irish language will turn you off. Shame if it does. I hope we can share in appreciating this brilliance and the heart in these songs. I have a feeling we’re going to be hearing more about this movie over the next couple months (hopefully longer), as the DVD begins to circulate. I really wish I’d seen it at the Pickford Cinema this summer, but alas, the time was right this week.

More info at Wikipedia, of course.

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