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MOVIES / ON DVD / ONCE
Once

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Once (2007)

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97 %
Reviews Counted: 139 Fresh: 135  Rotten:4 Average Rating: 8.3/10
 
Consensus: A charming, captivating tale of love and music. A charming, captivating tale of love and music, Once sets the standard for the modern musical. And with Dublin as its backdrop, Once is fun and fresh. more
 
Rated: 15
Runtime: 86 mins
Theatrical Release: 19-10-2007
Synopsis:
The Irish romance ONCE may be a musical, but it is miles away from the traditional Hollywood idea of people bursting into song. Glen Hansard (frontman for indie rock band The Frames) plays the guy, a street musician who is playing for change when he meets the girl (Marketa Irglova), an immigrant... [More]
The Irish romance ONCE may be a musical, but it is miles away from the traditional Hollywood idea of people bursting into song. Glen Hansard (frontman for indie rock band The Frames) plays the guy, a street musician who is playing for change when he meets the girl (Marketa Irglova), an immigrant from the Czech Republic. The pair immediately bond over their shared love of music (he is a guitarist, and she plays the piano), and the film chronicles their tentative relationship. Both are weighed down by plenty of baggage: his songs are fueled by a painful breakup, and she is a young mother who left her husband behind in her native country. Like the independent favorite BEFORE SUNRISE, ONCE is a simple, sweet drama that doesn't rely on an elaborate plot. With its use of digital video and handheld cameras, ONCE matches its spare visual style to its intimate mood. Each moment feels stolen from real life, and the story is at once familiar and fresh. Driven more by music than by dialogue, ONCE features a stirring soundtrack of heartfelt indie rock sung by Hansard and Irglova. Before his foray into film, director John Carney (ON THE EDGE) played bass in The Frames, and his passion for music is clear in this modern musical that hits every note perfectly. [Less]

Genre: Musical & Performing Arts

Starring: Glen Hansard, Marketa Irglova, Bill Hodnett, Danuse Ktrestova

Director: John Carney
Screenwriter: John Carney
Producer: Martina Niland

DVD Info

Release:

Jun 12, 2008

[DVD Details]

DVD Features:

  • Widescreen

Audio:

  • Stereo - English, Spanish
  • Subtitles - English, French, Spanish - Optional

Additional Release Materials:

  • Audio Commentary - John Carney - Director; Glen Hansard, Marketa Irglova - Stars
  • Featurettes - 1. "Making a Modern Day Musical"
  • 2. "More Guy, More Girl"
  • Musical Commentary - John Carney - Director; Glen Hansard, Marketa Irglova - Stars
  • Trailers

Reviews

 
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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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Ratings Image

A simply sung tale that deserves attention.

Full Review | Comment
10/19/07 09:43 AM
Helen Cowley
Little White Lies
Ratings Image

Not since Before Sunset has a romantic film managed to be as touching, funny or as hard to forget as Once.

Full Review | Comment
10/19/07 09:39 AM
Sukhdev Sandhu
Daily Telegraph
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image

A soulful valentine to music, friendship and the joys of honest hard graft, played out in the bedsits and recording studios of a deglamourised Dublin.

Full Review | Comment
10/19/07 07:51 AM
Xan Brooks
Guardian [UK]
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image

Once is a largely successful attempt to present something old-fashioned – a romantic musical – in a modern way and on a budget that stops some distance short of six figures.

Full Review | Comment
10/19/07 07:23 AM
Karl French
Financial Times
Ratings Image

A rare innocence and a fresh approach to filmmaking make this a thoroughly charming and unconventional love story.

Full Review | Comment
10/19/07 05:20 AM
Steve Watson
Channel 4 Film
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image

Steering well clear of schmaltz, the movie is carried by Hansard’s stirring soundtrack, wonderfully naturalistic performances and a storyline that never veers into whimsy.

| Comment
10/19/07 05:10 AM
Daily Mirror [UK]
Ratings Image

In some places the camerawork feels a little underwhelming, and at times the leads' inexperience in acting shows up in comparison to their musical performances, but overall it works as a quiet, wistful modern romance.

Full Review | Comment
10/19/07 04:47 AM
Laura Bushell
BBC
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image

A film to fall in love with and take a date to, Once’s heart leaps from its sleeve. Pure and simple yet multiplex-unfriendly, this fantastic musical may take some seeking out, but once found it’s hard to forget.

Full Review | Comment
10/19/07 04:10 AM
Jonathon Dean
Total Film
Ratings Image

Note to metalheads: if Damien Rice-style singer-songwriters have you reaching for the sick bucket, you might want to give it a miss.

Full Review | Comment
10/19/07 03:21 AM
Ruth Ford
Sky Movies
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The year’s most pleasant cinematic surprise. Once has enough heart, wit, verve and sheer songwriting genius to ensure you’ll see it far more times than its title suggests.

Full Review | Comment
10/19/07 02:51 AM
Dan Jolin
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image

Easily one of the best films of the year.

Full Review | Comment
10/18/07 03:15 AM
Matthew Turner
ViewLondon
Ratings Image

The real dialogue is the music, as the lovers communicate through lyrics. The filmmaking is unadorned, but the emotional virtuosity is rhapsodic.

Full Review | Comment
06/23/07 05:33 AM
Stephen Garrett
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image

Um filme mágico que, através de sua narrativa enganosamente simples, alcança uma vitória que escapa à maioria das obras do gênero, retratando com sentimento o instante preciso no qual dois seres humanos se descobrem apaixonados um pelo outro.

Full Review | Comment
04/19/08 12:20 AM
Pablo Villaca
Cinema em Cena
Ratings Image

a tender little ultralow budget movie about the intimate connection of making music...the warm folkiness of the songs and their generally non-narrative-pushing content make it feel more like a long, lovely home movie of a short portion of two people's liv

Full Review | Comment
02/16/08 10:36 AM
Karina Montgomery
Cinerina
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A moving story about two people who share a common love of music.

Full Review | Comment
02/02/08 02:08 PM
Wesley Lovell
Oscar Guy
Ratings Image

mia idiaiteri kinimatografiki empeiria, esto kai san kolaz, apo mia seira binteoklip me toys idioys, agapimenoys soy protagonistes

Full Review | Comment
01/26/08 01:32 AM
Joseph Proimakis
Movies for the Masses
Ratings Image

With delicate care and a modest street musician attitude, Carney has reinvented what a movie musical can be.

Full Review | Comment
01/14/08 02:31 PM
David Cornelius
eFilmCritic.com
Ratings Image

...an epic told in incomplete lyric lines, a classic fable forged out of slowly strummed guitar, lilting piano, and strained, struggling voices.

Full Review | Comment
12/28/07 05:30 AM
Bill Gibron
PopMatters
Ratings Image

Though the trailer for Once might pique your curiosity, you don't know the freight train of raw emotion that's about to blindside you.

Full Review | Comment
12/24/07 03:23 PM
Adam Fendelman
HollywoodChicago.com
Ratings Image

Once doesn't plop its emotions on its characters' sleeves, and it trusts us enough to leave some of the best stuff unstated. In other words, it trusts us to know that half the music lies between the notes.

Full Review | Comment
12/19/07 07:30 PM
Mark Bourne
Film.com
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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Related Forums

tfosgard
If you do not like "Once," please have someone check your pulse -- you might be dead
by: tfosgard 4/7


'Once' named one of top five Irish films!
by: RottingTomato 3/27


REEL_REVIEWER
(2007)-ONCE -if you like the music, you'll LOVE the movie ... Glen Hansard rocks!!!
by: REEL_REVIEWER 3/26


REEL_REVIEWER
(2007)-ONCE -if you like the music, you'll LOVE the movie ... Glen Hansard rocks!!!
by: REEL_REVIEWER 3/26


REEL_REVIEWER
(2007)-ONCE -if you like the music, you'll LOVE the movie ... Glen Hansard rocks!!!
by: REEL_REVIEWER 3/26
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