ONCE: Music in the streets

REVIEW
PARK CITY -- Described by Irish director John Carney as an "art house musical," "Once" was one of the unheralded small films that took people by surprise and became a sleeper hit at the Sundance Film Festival, winning the World Audience Award. The story of a street musician and an immigrant girl who connect and then disconnect, the film has enormous charm and zero pretense. It deserves to find a home in theaters... Read the full review and more at hollywoodreporter.com.


SYNOPSIS

A Guy (with no name - Glen Hansard of the Irish band Frames) is singing his heart out on the streets of Dublin for tip money. One day a Czech Girl (with no name - Marketa Irglova) stops to listen to the Guy play his music. She is very impressed by his songs and she asks if he wrote his own music. The Guy says that he writes and loves to play his own songs to himself even if the street crowd wants to hear other music. It is nice to earn tips, but that is not what his music is all about. The Guy lives at home and helps his father repair vacuum cleaners, but he has a dream of becoming a recording star. His girlfriend of many years has just left him and is now living in London. You can tell what this has done to his emotions, because it is being reflected in his new songs. The Girl who happens to have a broken vacuum cleaner also has a musical background of playing the piano and writing songs. Their music brings them together and the Girl begins to help the Guy realize his dream. They begin to share their music and their feeling for each other. They put together a band with other street players and rent a recording studio for the weekend to record two demos. This could be the start of a new and wonderful life.

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