Summary
It's not that the rest of Once doesn't live up to these scenes; indeed, it has stray moments almost as affecting. But claims that Once is a masterpiece of simplicity, one that cleanly translates the power of music to cinema, are a bit overwrought. Once, for one thing, turns out to be a little too sloppy to pose as a finely chiseled gem. The story is simple: Street musician meets girl, girl helps street musician fund a demo, street musician and girl fall apprehensively in love. (The leads are even billed as "Guy" and "Girl.")
The apprehensive part makes things a lot less simple, for better and, sadly, for worse. Writer/director [John Carney] clearly intends for the aforementioned two scenes to convey some earthquaking love that [Glen Hansard] and Irglová never muster the courage to explicitly convey. But despite the herculean efforts of Irglová, "Girl" might as well be named "Fantasy Immigrant Babe"- there less for mutual adoration than to wax Hansard's ego, supply studio cash and add what amounts to pixie dust to his anguished, subVan Morrison ditties.Tone is everything, and [Christopher Smith]'s [Severance] is all over the place. At one point it's a lads' film. At another it's as gruesome as anything EIi Roth could come up with. At yet another it's just another modern Brit comedy. Never do these threads blend into a coherent package because, really, how can you milk yuks from a dude getting an emblem carved into his pot belly?See the full content of this document
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The TreatmentDirected by Oren RudavskyB-Reviewed by Matt PriggeOpens Fri, June 1Through his work with directors Whit Stillman (Metropolitan, Barcelona) and Noah Baumbach (Kicking and Screaming, Mr. Jealousy), actor Chris Eigeman has created a kind of archetype: a character articulate, sarcastic and a little (sometimes a lot) self-hating. Over the years Eigeman's been abfe...See the full content of this document
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