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Once

✭ ✭ ✭ ✭   Read critic reviews

Ireland
·
2007

Rated R · 1h 25m

Director John Carney
Starring Glen Hansard, Markéta Irglová, Hugh Walsh, Gerard Hendrick
Genre Drama, Music, Romance
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In this musical romance set in Dublin, two aspiring singer-songwriters -- a vacuum repairman and a Czech immigrant who sells flowers -- decide to team up. As they create and record music together, they grow closer and begin to fall in love, despite each having complicated life circumstances.

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WHAT ARE CRITICS SAYING?

70

Film Threat by

A film of limited production values, a low-quality picture and the occasional flubbed camera move. But it makes up for these flaws with sharp observations, compelling characters and a great collection of music.
90

The New York Times by A.O. Scott

Its low-key affect and decidedly human scale endow Once with an easy, lovable charm that a flashier production could never have achieved. The formula is simple: two people, a few instruments, 88 minutes and not a single false note.
70

Variety by Dennis Harvey

Winningly unpretentious tale uses a wispy romantic narrative as a vehicle for attractive original tunes.
80

L.A. Weekly by Ella Taylor

Once feels handmade in the best sense, an impressionistic feast for the senses cobbled together from lovely grace notes and a warm palette of reds and yellows.
75

ReelViews by James Berardinelli

This isn't a perfect motion picture but, in the midst of summer's vapid pursuit of spectacle, a movie that provides real heart and emotion is a rare find.
88

TV Guide Magazine by Ken Fox

Focusing strictly on stripped-down performances of great music and the charming chemistry between the two leads, it's a perfectly realized yet unassuming movie that deserves to find a big audience.
100

Entertainment Weekly by Owen Gleiberman

Until Once, I'm not sure that I'd ever seen a small-scale, nonstylized, kitchen-sink drama in which the songs take on the majesty and devotion of a musical dream.

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