Hey, have you ever seen… Once?

And in the darkness when you find this

I’ll be far to sea.

If you look in the credits, Glen Hansard is listed as “Guy” and Marketa Irglova is listed as “Girl” and that’s about the extent of it.  There doesn’t need to be any more, because these characters are acting out the absolute simplest of stories.  Back beyond Jack and Rose, or Romeo and Juliet, or Cleopatra and Antony, there is a cave painting of a guy and a girl, and this is their story.

Maybe not that simple, but it felt poetic. Things can get a little more complicated then that, even when it’s just a guy and a girl. That’s Once. It’s a poetic love story that is speedbumped by real life.

Go into this knowing that there is a very strong role music plays in the film.  It’s the setting though, not the story.  There is something pure about this film wherein there are so many dis tractors, so many opportunities for it to go off track, but the story continually draws it back to the essence of what it really is; a love story. There are a number of reasons for this purity.

First, Glen and Marketa are not actors, but musicians, as are the guy and girl.  When they’re involved in music there is something comfortable in their posture and the way they move and play and sing that can’t be acted.  It’s not a romantic comedy either.  The humor is natural and sparse.  There’s no glam, no lip syncing, no stand-ins.  The film feels very organic, and if you look into some of the stories about its production, that organic description holds up.

Even the musical numbers in the film (and yes there are multiple) come across logically, seamlessly a part of the story.  The entire soundtrack (save one song) were performed by either Glen, Marketa, or both, and they all are a part of the script.  One of the first times the Guy is singing, there is that moment of discomfort, like when your drunk friend first starts to karaoke, but it doesn’t have any chance to stand up against the strength of the film.

It’s too bad the greatest claim to fame these people may have was that Marketa was notably cut off of her Academy acceptance speech when the track “Falling Slowly” won for best song, and was brought back out after the commercials to say her piece.  What should be the claim to fame is that it is one of the most appealing, natural, endearing and well crafted pieces of cinema in the last couple years, and it may be one that you may have entirely missed.