Soundtrack Review: ‘Once’

By Jeff Swindoll Jun 17, 2007, 16:03 GMT

Even those allergic to musicals may be won over by Once, a tender-hearted Irish romance with songs by Czech Republic–born Markéta Irglová and Frames frontman Glen Hansard. (The film\'s director, John Carney, actually used to play bass in the group.) The trick here is that Irglová and Hansard also play the leads; because their characters are shown busking, writing music, or rehearsing, the songs are smoothly integrated in the film. ...more

What the movie is about (with a little help from USA Today): a busker (street musician) in Dublin (Glen Hansard) plays cover songs for tourists during the day and works on his original songs in the evenings.  He meets his muse (Marketa Irglova), a single mom who sells flowers on the street. 

Together they try to make a demo record.  I have to rely on the net or USA Today since this little gem isn’t playing near me (well, potential gem since I haven’t seen it – but it sounds interesting and like a good movie – bring on the DVD). 

This soundtrack could be considered the realization of the efforts of the characters since they’re attempting an album and what an album it is.  Glen Hansard even acted as producer on the soundtrack, which adds more of the “movie reality” to it and he and/or Irglova even wrote most of the songs and perform all of them. 

The songs are truly wonderful (dammit, makes me want to see the movie more).  So this review could not only be of a soundtrack but as if it were an original work by some aspiring musicians and it’s excellent on both counts. 

Each of the songs have a wonderful folk quality to them and Hansard and Irglova are really good singers to my ear. 

This is one soundtrack that I can recommend to both fans of the film and those that have never heard of it (especially those that like buskers).  Highly recommended and a beautiful work.