Eight years ago John Carney gave us Once, a sweet film that infuriated me for its lack of payoff. When you have a lead pair who don’t fall in love while creating together the love song “Falling Slowly,” that’s a cheat. It’s like two boxers engaging in world-class trash talking and then watching pay-per-view like the rest of us. I think Once is among the world’s safest movies – it’s beautiful and yet completely unchallenging because the leads never do more than hint there’s more to their relationship.
But I didn’t come here to talk about Once. I think. You see, John Carney just made the same exact film, aptly titled Begin Again. You won’t actually believe how similar: two strangers brought together by music, the musician is single while the companion has an on/off family. They deny an obvious attraction in favor of song, and finally about five minutes from conclusion, the movie makes it clear that despite all hinting, there won’t be any actual romance.
Unfortunately for Carney and fortunately for us, the romance was implausible to begin with — Mark Ruffalo is 17 years older than Keira Knightley and looks every minute of it here. This allows the music angle to develop on its own without any real belief that romance is about to blossom. When they meet in a club, Dan (Ruffalo) is a mess. Mark Ruffalo does an impressive job of showing how thin the line is between “career on the downswing” and “homeless.” Now switch to the Knightley news — Ok, you’re gorgeous, cute, and alone (more or less). You pour your guts out on stage and when you’re finished a scraggly middle-aged drunk approaches you, claims he’s a producer, and wants to record your music. Then he can’t pay for his drink. I know this is a movie, but if this happened in real life to, say, my daughter, I would hope she’d have the good sense to blow him off politely and leave in a crowd.
This being a movie, Greta (Knightley) believes in Dan’s abilities unseen. She does so e
ven though he has no money. It’s like finding a Sugar Daddy who turns out to be just an empty stick, moist on the end where it’s been sucked dry. At one point, we see why Greta is single – her pop star boyfriend (Adam Levine) tells her he’s interested in somebody new with a song he recorded. Kudos; can’t remember seeing anyone dumped through song before.
Ok, so while I didn’t believe the album production quality for a second, I did enjoy the result – Greta and Dan end up producing their music not in a studio, but using public Manhattan as the backdrop. Personally, I don’t think this can be done in real life without a serious number of distractions eating at the sound, but that doesn’t detract from the vision of a garage band recording outside a garage.
The soundtrack is quite good. I had no idea Keira Knightley could do her own music stunts, yet it doesn’t surprise me that she can – I especially loved two biographical numbers: “Like a Fool” and “A Step You Can’t Take Back.” The movie knows there’s some quality music here. It doesn’t seem to understand, however, that Adam Levine’s numbers in Begin Again kinda bite – and coinciding one with the climax was a mistake. Had Knightley’s numbers been uninspired, this film would be a serious downer.
A Manhattan couple can’t afford
That charming music they wish to record
You say, “romance?”
I say, “shmomance.”
They’re just here for the best song award
Rated R, 104 Minutes
D: John Carney
W: John Carney
Genre: Romance-less romance
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Starlets
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Music haters
