Movie Maven

Greetings, lovers, from Northern Ireland! I haven't sent postcards yet, I'm sorry, they're in the mail. I'm currently on Study Abroad, for those who don't know, and spending the semester in lovely Belfast. This gives me a rare opportunity to view Irish film in its native habitat, something which I will share with you as the season of "serious, Oscar-worthy" films progresses.

For my first selection, I give what is probably my favorite film this year, Once. I actually saw this in the States at a tiny art theater in Toledo. And when I left it, throwing myself into the heady Ohio summer night, I felt like I had been changed in some irrevocable way. I've been processing it ever since, listening obsessively to the soundtrack and telling everyone within earshot to watch it immediately.

It's a deceptively simple film; shot on a shoestring in the streets of Dublin, the story features Guy (Glen Hansard of The Frames and the future father of my children) who busks on Grafton St. He meets Girl (Marketa Irglova) a Czech immigrant and a piano player. In an intense period of a few days they feverishly write, record a demo, and fall in love. It's a musical of sorts, but quieter, more reflective, and ending in a way that these stories really do in life, despite what mainstream Hollywood would have us believe.

In Hollywood the story would be about the meeting of two lovers. They would be played by Matthew McConaughey and Sandra Bullock. There would be scene at the airport where she runs after him as he's leaving, and they kiss, and the people around them clap and they live happily ever after.

That's the not the case here. Here, the story is primarily about the meeting of two artists, a far rarer and much more significant relationship. They are played by two unprofessional actors who are nonetheless luminous and true in their performances. There is no tearful scene at the airport. And though the ending is happy and hopeful, it is not neatly wrapped up with a bow.

Also significant is the setting: the grey, dirty Dublin streets, gorgeous and mysterious and sad... indeed, very much like the music that is played in the film. Every detail in the film is meant to portray the beauty, mystery and sadness of very ordinary life.

And even better, it seems to have been made by people who actually know what ordinary life is like.