'Once': Predictable Story, Whiny Songs

Maui Time | June 11, 2007
Music video masquerades as a heart-on-sleeve narrative featuring a charismatic, if musically limited and redundant, Glen Hansard of the Irish rock band the Frames. Guy (Hansard) carries a torch for his absent girlfriend while he busks the streets of Dublin. Enter cute Czech immigrant pianist girl (Marketa Irglova) to give Guy the musical boost he needs to make a recording. Once works as an overlong mood piece, but its strictly predictable story, and whiny songs, brings into relief the music video sequences on display.

Rated R, 88 mins. (C+)

Maui Time

Maui Time Weekly provides insightful analysis and in depth reporting. We believe some issues are so important they require thoughtful consideration. We are not a “paper of record”—a daily journal of government meetings, ribbon-cuttings and corporate announcements. We decide what’s...
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