"Once" is catching

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"Will Once, the recently released Irish film, turn into this summer's indie hit? It's showing early promise. Starring Glen Hansard, the lead singer of Dublin's the Frames rock band, as an Irish street singer and his sometime musical collaborator, Marketa Irglova, as a classically trained pianist who sells roses on the street, the film opened May 18 on just two screens, both in L.A., to an abnormally high $30,000-per-screen average. An unvarnished ode to musical discovery, Once expanded to 20 screens in 13 cities over the Memorial Day weekend, averaging $21,626 per screen." -- from Sheigh Crabtree's L.A.Times piece, which is actually more about the music.

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on May 31, 2007 at 9:30 AM

comment #1

SHR says ...

You were right on the money when you raved about this one Jeff. Terrific performances and music and a very satisfying conclusion. Easily the best film I've seen this year.

Posted by SHR at May 31, 2007 9:53 AM

comment #2

Monument says ...

I'm curious about this one, don't know much about it. But as a side note, the Frames are a band well worth checking out. A couple albums back, Glen Hansard wrote a song called Fitzcarraldo, inspired by the great Werner Herzog film.

Posted by Monument at May 31, 2007 9:58 AM

comment #3

Craig Kennedy says ...

Monument, if you like The Frames, you should definitely check out Once. I've only sampled The Frames and they feel different from the music in the movie (the Frames sound more polished), but the music in Once is great if you go for that indie-folkie kind of thing.

Posted by Craig Kennedy at May 31, 2007 11:06 AM

comment #4

Jayne Gacey says ...

THIS YEAR'S LITTLE MISS ONCE!

Posted by Jayne Gacey at May 31, 2007 12:10 PM

comment #5

MiraJeffAICN says ...

Jeff, I owe you one buddy. I went to see Bug at Arclight and got there 5 minutes late so they wouldn't sell me a ticket. So I went to see this instead. Completely blew me away. I've been listening to the sdtk. non-stop all week. A gift of a film. Absolutely lovely. Do whatever you can to see it.

Posted by MiraJeffAICN at May 31, 2007 1:13 PM

comment #6

sardine says ...

once IS lovely. much better than little miss sunshine.

Posted by sardine at May 31, 2007 1:22 PM

comment #7

thezipper says ...

Once is great but Waitress is already the breakout indie hit of the summer.

Posted by thezipper at May 31, 2007 1:40 PM

comment #8

Craig Kennedy says ...

Similar to LMS, I'm afraid Once will be crushed by expectation if it ends up getting too much praise. It's a simple, lovely film that really doesn't need a lot of hype.

Posted by Craig Kennedy at May 31, 2007 2:06 PM

comment #9

Circumvrent says ...

I hate to be the Ugly American here, but I want to see this movie this weekend, and I have to know...how thick are the accents? Am I going to be able to understands the sons of bitches without that digital subtitling they offer the hearing impaired?

Posted by Circumvrent at May 31, 2007 9:08 PM

comment #10

Craig Kennedy says ...

I missed a word or a line here and there but it wasn't too bad.

Posted by Craig Kennedy at May 31, 2007 11:16 PM

comment #11

Joe B. says ...

I couldn't undestand much of anything in the opening daytime scene on the street, but was ok for 99% of the rest of the film. (And I usually have no problem with accents; the opening scene was a head-scratcher for me though)

Posted by Joe B. at June 1, 2007 8:08 AM

comment #12

Mike Schaefer says ...

Joe B: I had the same problem with the opening scene -- subtitles would've been a good idea, there's clearly jokes there that most people will not get. After that, though, it's fine. A sweet, small film that I hope will not suffer from being overhyped.

Posted by Mike Schaefer at June 1, 2007 9:05 AM

comment #13

Larry says ...

This movie is painfully dull. Even at an hour and a half it wears out its welcome.

It's not the accents, it's the music--bad Cat Stevens (and I don't even like good Cat Stevens). And believe me, there's a lot of music in this film--if you don't like it, it feels like being stuck at a concert you didn't want to go to.

Posted by Larry at June 1, 2007 9:39 AM

comment #14

otakuhouse says ...

I remember when you first wrote about this film which put it on my radar, and I do believe it's one of the year's best. I'd advise anyone seeing it to sample the soundtrack, though, as you'll have to be ok with it. Early on I used to shoot a lot of documentary material of musicians and I lived in Cork, Ireland for about five years so I'm a little biased... But that said it's pitch perfect in capturing those experiences and that country. In a sad way i think it's about the ireland of ten years ago and not now, and I'm surprised not one single critic has mentioned the fact that it has a benevolent attitude towards eastern european and other exile immigrants in Ireland... Something which the culturally homogenous country is not doing well with I hear.

Posted by otakuhouse at June 1, 2007 6:21 PM

comment #15

The Hoyk says ...

It's that damned good. I can't wait to watch again.

Posted by The Hoyk at June 1, 2007 7:37 PM

comment #16

Jayne Gacey says ...

The Hoyk is clearly Larry King.

Posted by Jayne Gacey at June 2, 2007 5:37 AM

comment #17

The Hoyk says ...

No, but I did have a TV show, dare I say it, once.

Jayne Gacey is clearly another troll using the tired template of taking a pseudonym carefully crafted from hipster icons (Ooh, look - Jayne County crossed with John Wayne Gacy, and I'll even change the spelling to pwn it) and then quickly making themself the gadfly of the moment, believing themselves speaking truth to power when they are just shrilly spewing bile for 15 minutes of internet fame.

This is the only time I'll ever bother replying to you directly, Jayne; henceforth, you're on the pay-no-mind list with D.Z. Hope you enjoyed the rebuke to which you've no doubt got some frightfully catty reply already planned.

Posted by The Hoyk at June 2, 2007 7:17 PM

comment #18