Once vs Music And Lyrics

If you are a creative person, or have affection for someone who is, Once is a movie for you. Everything that matters to me about my own creativity, or the type of creativity that inspires me in other people, was on screen for the entirety of the movie. I am beside myself about how simple and moving Once is, and about how it dodges being as frustrating and annoying as a mainstream Hollywood version of the same story would have been.

I know you guys get sick of me gushing over everything simple and subtle on here, like I didn’t see Transformers just a few weeks ago, and like I didn’t rent Premonition, and like I won’t love Across the Universe, which looks like Baz Luhrman directing Hair. Once came out of nowhere, and impressed me, partly because I watched Music and Lyrics a month ago and was still thinking, Jeez, I love Drew Barrymore, but is that really how the music business works? Have any of these people ever even been to a concert? Isn’t Drew the one who supposedly attends all those indie shows and bangs awesome hipster drummers?

Music and Lyrics is like a kid’s idea of how the world works. Meaning, it’s, you know, a movie. Drew Barrymore plays Sophie, a plant-waterer in New York, who doesn’t seem to be homeless, and doesn’t seem to have ten other jobs. Plants in New York get thirsty, I suppose, and someone’s gotta water them, although Sophie doesn’t move all that quickly, and doesn’t seem to water much. The whole point is that she’s got a feel for things that are real and alive. She’s all heart, see. Sophie meets Alex Fletcher (Hugh Grant), a pop star from the 1980s whose popularity has waned. Alex spends most of his performing time at high school reunions and theme parks. He’s still writing songs for pop-stars, however, or he would be if he could think of some lyrics. And in walks Sophie, with her watering jug, her sweet soul, her poetic spirit, and her awesome Drew Barrymoreness.

I can’t help it. It’s Drew Barrymore, and I had to watch. She has virtually nothing interesting or believable to do in Music and Lyrics, but she’s enjoyable just the same, especially when paired with the comic timing one-two punch of Hugh Grant and the underrated Kristin Johnston (if I believed in guilty pleasures, 3^rd Rock from the Sun would be mine. Since I don’t, I just get to love 3^rd Rock from the Sun while you mind your own business.) Music and Lyrics is sweet, and the music Sophie and Alex make is actually pretty good. It’s just that, once you’ve seen Once, you might stop and think, Wait, is that what Music and Lyrics was supposed to be?

Once also tells a story of a simple girl (a flower vendor) and a down-on-his-luck musician. They’re never named—the credits list them as Guy and Girl—but they’re played, perfectly, by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova. Once takes place during one short week, in which Glen and Marketa meet, become tentative friends, and collaborate on music. Once isn’t technically a musical, but it’s about music, with songs performed during nearly every scene. I don’t recall another movie that lived and breathed the necessity of music more. It’s like if the Wise Up scene in Magnolia had lasted the entire movie.

Glen and Marketa (or, for you nitpickers, Guy and Girl) are lonely and poor, but invigorated by the process of writing, playing and recording music. It’s the best way they can think of to communicate, and is probably keeping each from going completely mental. Marketa lives with her mother and daughter, in a tiny apartment; they have the only television in the building, so they basically share the apartment with everyone else who lives in the building. Glen lives with his father, retreating to what I’m guessing was his childhood bedroom (rock posters line the walls) to nurse his broken heart. Together, they’re playful and funny, excited by the prospect of making music—and, we wonder, a life?—together.

Once was written and directed by John Carney. Once is one of those movies with what appears to be real light and sound (although I’m sure a lot of work goes into making it look that way, or into making it look passable if it truly is what it looks like, if you get my meaning). The movie is fairly quick-paced (that week flies by), but everything is peaceful and warm. The music is performed so well that the soundtrack is one of the few that holds up as its movie’s equal (some songs were created for the movie, some are covers of Hansard’s band The Frames). Once ends as it started, with music, melancholy and a bit of mystery. You’ll beg the screen for just ten more minutes. You’ll watch the credits through, hoping for one more bit of the story. It’s not there. Once is a bit like life in that way. Some things don’t wrap up neatly. They can’t all be Music and Lyrics. Not that sometimes, eating take-out sandwiches and lying on your couch, you don’t need a little Drew Barrymore giggling and thinking up hooky pop rhymes just like that. But man, once in a while, give me something like Once, and I’ll be a happy man. I loved this movie.

Once: A
Music and Lyrics: C+