monday 08.06.07

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Once in a lifetime a romance comes along that changes you, and, seemingly as rare, a movie comes along that truly moves you.

Once is the story of a down-on-his-luck Irish musician who meets a spirited Czech girl while performing for change on a Dublin street. He pays the bills working as a vacuum repairman in his father's shop, and she happens to have one that needs fixing--which she determinedly tugs through the streets to bring to him the next day. But it's music that really brings the two together and gives voice to their romance. She's a singer and pianist, and when the two play for the first time together in the back of a music store the result is electrifying. They spend the week working together on a demo album as their connection intensifies. Known only as "guy" and "girl," the pair is played by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglove, musicians who collaborated together on the 2006 album The Swell Season.

Once is considered a modern-day musical, but this is no Hairspray. The hauntingly beautiful songs are organic and tell the couple's remarkable love story with heartfelt simplicity and grace. In one of the most memorable scenes, the girl leaves her house at night to get batteries for the CD player given to her by the guy to write lyrics to his melodies. The camera follows her for blocks as she leaves the store singing a gorgeous, loving tune as she listens to his music.

Hansard is the lead singer, guitarist, and a founding member of the Irish rock group The Frames, and actually got his start playing his music on the streets of Dublin when he was just 13. He met Irglove on a recent trip to Prague, and the chemistry between them as both actors and musicians is sublime. Once is currently playing at Landmark Theatres across the country. If you're like us, you'll want to pick up the stunning soundtrack as soon as the credits roll. You won't soon forget songs as wonderful and powerful as "Falling Slowly" and "Say It to Me Now."