Once - John Carney

Directed by John Carney, Once is a film with music that came out in 2007. It is an Irish film, telling the story of two people who are struggling their way through life. One works with his father in a shop that fixes vacuum cleaners, while also busking when he can. The film starts with him singing and busking on a street corner. Right away we realized that this is where his passion is, and what he wants to do. He is played by Glen Hansard. During the day he sings songs written by other people because that is what people want to hear and that is what makes him money. Sounds so familiar to so much media that has come out - many people only want to hear, watch, read, experience something familiar and so companies focus on that. (Which is somewhat ironic as this film was then turned into a stage show - which is amazing).

In the evening, Hansard performs his own work - very passionate and amazing. This draws the attention of someone who walked by earlier - a Czech woman played by Markéta Irglová. There is some connection between then that we see grow as they explore their musical talent together. This ends with them putting together a band for a recording session that goes really well, and Hansard decides to go to London and try to make his name. 

The performances in the film are fairy raw because both of these people are pretty much playing themselves in a story of how they got together and created the band The Swell Season (or so it can be safely assumed). The story of the movie is the music. The hoped-for relationship between the two performers never really happens in the film, but it is certainly a musical romance for sure.

Honestly between the film and the stage production, I find the stage production to be more immediate - mainly due to the live music aspect of it. Regardless, the film is solid and a very good intro into the music of these two amazing musicians.