Once Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Once Blu-ray Movie Review

. . .but who's counting?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 22, 2014

Sorry to pun horribly right out of the gate here, but every Once in a while a film comes down the veritable garden path that is an instant critics’ darling that this particular critic just doesn’t get. Is Once a sweet, charming, and even endearingly disheveled film? Absolutely, and on those terms, it is an unqualified success. But is it somehow the Second Coming of romantic musicals, a masterpiece for the ages? Sorry, I think not. Once is one of those tiny efforts that ends up having an inordinately large impact, and that perhaps leads people to join a burgeoning chorus of praise for the filmmakers, repeating, “They thought they could, they thought they could,” which of course soon segues (as in any good musical) to, “And they did, they did!” So let’s start out by handing an appropriate bouquet of roses to writer-director John Carney and his musically inclined stars Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová for even getting Once made, and made on their terms, to begin with. Once may not offer much in the plot department—let’s face it, this isn’t even a standard “boy meets girl” film—but it has an abundance of heart and manages to charm largely on its unvarnished and seemingly unrehearsed interplay between the never named Guy (Hansard) and Girl (Irglová) who make up the film’s central couple. As a supposed portrait of the peripatetic life of a street musician (or busker, as they’re called across the pond), Once is decidedly romantic itself, with an almost 42nd Street approach of this duo “going out there a chorus girl—and/or backup singer, as the case may be—and coming back a star”, but the film at least does have the courage not to take the expected path with regard to actual “romance” between Guy and Girl, and that, along with a truly wonderful song score, may ultimately be Once’s most salient saving grace.

Writer-director John Carney is on record (no pun intended, considering the musical ambitions of the film’s stars) as stating he knew that Once was built upon an incredibly thin and even flimsy foundation. There’s no real traditional “arc” here (as lamentable as that term has become), and there’s not even a traditional love story at play between Guy and Girl. Instead, there’s a kind of Brief Encounter-esque meeting of the minds (if not the bodies) of two people who find themselves thrust together unexpectedly, almost as if by—yes—fate. This is intentionally slight, small scale filmmaking, one that is more or less about nothing else than two people trying to record some music, and that frankly may not be quite enough to sustain the film for its entire running time.

While Carney gives some passing lip service to developing his two lead characters’ back stories, what actually makes Once work is the honesty and conviction that Hansard and Irglová bring to the musical sequences. The drama here is fitfully engaging, in a lo-fi “kitchen sink drama” kind of way, but it’s in the musical sequences that Once takes flight, suddenly unencumbered by its lack of production values, name stars or even much of a story. What’s interesting about Once, at least for inveterate lovers of musicals, is how simultaneously traditional and untraditional the film is in incorporating the sung elements into the basic flow of the picture. Once seems to be defying the formulations of a “normal” book musical by having the music performances be actual music performances, rather than “sung dialogue”. But exactly like in the best book musicals ever written, the songs here divulge the inner worlds of the characters, even if the characters themselves are writing the songs.

Guy and Girl are brought winningly to life by Hansard and Irglová, but Carney perhaps short changes the actors by not giving them all that much to chew on, dramatically speaking. Guy is on the reticent side, something else that gives the film an inherently lurching, stuttering quality. And while it is undeniably refreshing that the couple doesn’t traipse lovingly into happily ever after land whilst singing a Top 10 pop song, there’s also a somewhat unfocused feeling to the film’s denouement that seems to end without really coming to a satisfying conclusion.

I’m fully aware that I am in the distinct minority when it comes to Once. I fully appreciate the film’s spontaneity and defiance of convention, but I simply don’t think the film is the unabashed masterpiece that so many others seem to. If Once were simply a bunch of strung together music videos, without the pretense of a story and characters, I for one would have been just as impressed—and maybe even more so—than I am with the film as it stands.

Once Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Once is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.84:1. This transfer shows the same odd ribbon of pillarboxing on the left side of the frame that was also evident in the British Blu-ray released by Icon Home Entertainment which was reviewed by my colleague Dr. Svet Atanasov. Once was shot on a veritable shoestring with a digital camcorder, and it looks like it. The image here is often very soft by contemporary standards, with low contrast further hampering shots in dim lighting or at night. Colors are generally accurate looking, if not especially vivid. Close-ups fare best here (see screenshot 1 for a typical example), with very good to excellent fine detail. While this has an unmistakably lo-fi look, the transfer is actually very good, with no compression artifacts or other issues to warrant any concern.

Once Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Once's lo-fi ambience extends into its audio presentation, which is "only" a stereo mix, delivered via DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Things sound spectacularly clear and nicely balanced, however, with excellent layering of instruments in the musical sequences. The hustle and bustle of Dublin streets comes through quite well, if without much depth or directionality. Dialogue is also very cleanly presented on this problem free track.

Once Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary with Writer/Director John Carney and Actor/Musicians Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglová. While there's perhaps a bit too much of an "and now we're seeing" approach to this commentary, there's tons of interesting anecdotal information here, from Carney worrying about how much makeup Irglová should wear to how they kept the public at bay while the outdoor scenes were shot.


• Musical Commentary with Writer/Director John Carney and Actor/Musicians Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglová. This standalone commentary deals with the songs and provides some interesting background information.


• Making a Modern Day Musical (480i; 12:43) has some appealing behind the scenes footage.


• More Guy, More Girl (480i; 9:39) looks at the duo at the center of the film.


• Webisodes: Broken Hearted Hoover Fixer Sucker Guy (480i; 00:56)

Once Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Once is wonderfully unique and it contains some stunning music, but dramatically the film often feels inert and half formed, a series of vignettes rather than a well constructed story. Carney seems only too aware of these facts, given some of the comments he makes in his commentary and on the featurette included on this Blu-ray disc as a supplement. But there's a certain ineluctable charm to Once that helps it to overcome some of its flaws, and the music in the film acts as a soothing balm that washes over some of the rough corners on display in other parts of this outing. High definition can only do so much with limited source material, and that's the case with both the video and audio presentations here. With all these caveats in mind, Once still comes Recommended.