2014: #19

#19 Begin Again

'07 was potentially the best year for film in recent history. Two movies--Best Picture winner No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood--are certain to go down as New American Classics in our cinematic lexicon. Beyond that: Juno, the too-real take on teen pregnancy that sent Ellen Page and Minnesota's own Diablo Cody hurtling into pop-culture infamy; Michael Clayton, one of the best performances of George Clooney's career as the titular corporate fixer; Gone Baby Gone, Boston noir at its absolute finest and Ben Affleck's directing debut; and plenty of other standouts like nature confessional Into the Wild, family dramedy The Savages, animated political commentary Persepolis. The list goes on. Even with all of that, my favorite movie of that year--and honestly, it wasn't even close--was a little indie musical from Ireland called Once.

The man responsible for bringing Once to the big screen is John Carney, ex-bandmate of star Glen Hansard in the Frames. His latest music movie, Begin Again, came in with an $8,000,000 budget, roughly 45 times the budget of his previous one. If Clerks and Jar-Jar Binks taught us anything, bigger budgets does not always a better movie make. I had impossibly high expectations for this one, so disappointment would be considered a relative term.

Gretta (Keira Knightley) and Dave (Adam Levine) are living in New York after he has recently signed a big time deal. Eventually, he gets a case of the wandering eyes and Gretta hits the bricks, lost and distraught. Equally lost and distraught is record exec Dan (Mark Ruffalo), who can't seem to bring once-subordinate-now-boss Saul (Mos Def/Yaasin Bey) any worthwhile music. He's struggling with raising Violet (Hailee Steinfeld) and keeping ex-wife Miriam (Catherine Keener) off his back. Possible salvation comes in the form of Gretta, who he stumbles upon singing in a Soho nightclub. He convinces her to make an album with him in a truly organic fashion (including a cool montage in which they record outside), and it just might be the thing they both need. Everyone is good, especially the leads, and though it didn't come close to resonating with me emotionally in the same way that Once did, it was a fun, uplifting romp through New York in the eyes of musicians.

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