A few friends suggested that I see the Irish musical film “Once,” starring Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, so I put it into my Netflix queue and forgot about it until the DVD showed up in my mailbox last week.
I had low expectations for this film because I’m not usually a big musical lover (although I do know all of the words to all of the songs from “Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” for some reason), but despite my original skepticism, I really loved this film.
I was moved by the music as well as the story of an Irish “busker” (Hansard) who plays guitar on the Dublin streets when he isn’t working in his dad’s Hoover repair shop. He meets a Czech girl (Irglová ) who needs help with her vacuum and happens to play a mean piano. The two proceed to make music, and although their feelings for each other are intense, their lives are too complicated for their relationship to become romantic.
Yes, it gets contrived -- like how the two happen to stumble upon random pianos -- but at the same time, I found it very real, almost like a documentary. Perhaps this is because Hansard and Irglová fell in love for real while writing the music and filming “Once.”
Neither of the two are actors by trade -- both are professional musicians -- but their performances were extremely believable. (On a side bar, it’s worth noting that Irglová was only 17 when she and Hansard, then 36, started working together. It's unclear when the two became romantically linked, but today they are still together, and lucky for Hansard, she’s now a legal 20.)
I admit that part of the reason I loved this film is because it reminds me of when my husband and I traveled through Europe in 1993. We drove an old Volvo station wagon through seven countries and busked / played street guitar for spending money.
However, I quickly realized not everyone enjoyed "Once" as much as I did. One friend said she found it cheesy, another said she left the theater halfway through the film because she found their voices so off-putting.
But despite the naysayers, Hansard’s and Irglova’s band, The Swell Season, sold out The Riverside Theater for their Milwaukee performance on Thursday, May 8. Originally, the band was scheduled to gig at The Pabst, but the show sold out so quickly it was moved to the Riverside where it sold out, as well. I look forward to seeing this performance and reviewing it for OnMilwaukee.com.
Molly Snyder started writing and publishing her work at the age 10, when her community newspaper printed her poem, "The Unicorn.” Since then, she's expanded beyond the subject of mythical creatures and written in many different mediums but, nearest and dearest to her heart, thousands of articles for OnMilwaukee.
Molly is a regular contributor to FOX6 News and numerous radio stations as well as the co-host of "Dandelions: A Podcast For Women.” She's received five Milwaukee Press Club Awards, served as the Pfister Narrator and is the Wisconsin State Fair’s Celebrity Cream Puff Eating Champion of 2019.
