It tells the story of an Irish man, played by Glen Hansard, and a Czech woman, played by Markéta Irglová, who meet on the streets of Dublin and spend a precious couple of days together getting to know each other, making music and falling in love. Both Hansard and Irglová are musicians in real life, rather than professional actors. Hansard is frontman of the band The Frames. He and Irglová released their own album, "The Swell Season," together before the film.
Shot scrappily in the streets of Dublin, the film provides a view of the daily life of the Irish working class. Hansard works both as a repairman in his father's vacuum repair shop and as a busker playing songs on his battered guitar. Irglová sells flowers in the streets and cleans houses to support her family. Their lives are unglamorous but, in spite of their class background, Hansard and Irglová manage to create something beautiful.
When the couple meets, Irglová takes Hansard to a music shop where she surprises him with a performance of Mendelssohn's. Their love for composing and writing songs binds them together.
The soundtrack, written and performed by Hansard and Irglová, works incredibly well in the film. The songs fit naturally in the pacing of the film; rather than having characters burst into song like those in a musical, the songs are subtly blended into particular moments. At one point, Irglová sings in her bathrobe and fuzzy slippers while walking back to her bedroom from the neighborhood convenience store.
As the couple become more acquainted, Hansard asks her to record some songs with him. They find some street performers to play backup in the recordings and ask a banker for a small loan to sponsor their project. In one of the funnier scenes of the movie, the banker takes out his guitar and belts out an acoustic riff he's written along the lines of: "I want to be me/I want you to be you/You want me to be me … too." It seems fitting that a movie about music should have the recording of the couple's first song as its climax.
Above all, though, "Once" is an intimate look at the burgeoning love between two characters who remain unnamed throughout the entire film. In a sense, it is a modern tragic love story because both Hansard and Irglová have other romantic entanglements. Hansard has an ex-girlfriend whom he still loves, while Irglová has a husband and a child. Nevertheless, the audience constantly burns a torch for their love, which the main characters never openly acknowledge.
"Once" is both pleasant and painful. The film will have audiences rushing home to download the soundtrack onto their iPods. In a time during which Hollywood hits viewers with spectacles filled with explosions and lights, "Once" is a reminder that simpler movies may have more substance. It is gritty and realistic, with a bittersweet ending that is reflective of life. It is guaranteed to inspire its viewers in many different ways, and is definitely worth watching again and again. I have seen the film twice, and left the theater in tears both times.
The film explores issues that are real and contemporary in a sensitive manner, with a soundtrack of emotional, beautifully composed songs. The fact that the main characters are unnamed suggests the universality of their romantic experience and begs the question, "How often do you find the right person?" Evidently, and tragically, just once.