Editorial Review:

Product Description:
A serendipitous meeting on the streets of Dublin between a down on his luck Irish street performer and a poor Czech immigrant sparks a bond that plays out in this hip modern day music film. ONCE follows the two as they write rehearse and record the songs that reveal their unique love story.System Requirements:Run time: 86 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA/LOVE & ROMANCE Rating: R UPC: 024543477594 Manufacturer No: 2247759

Amazon.com:
Winner of the World Audience Award at Sundance, Once starts out as a small-scale romance, like Before Sunrise, before arriving somewhere unexpected. An Irish busker (Glen Hansard, the Frames and The Commitments) meets a Czech flower seller (Markéta Irglová) while singing on the streets of Dublin. (In the credits, they're listed as Guy and Girl.) She likes what she hears and lets him know. Turns out she's a musician, too. They work on a few songs together and a friendship is forged. She lives with her widowed mother, who doesn't speak English. He lives with his widowed father, who owns a repair shop. Since he broke up with his girlfriend, the guy has been drifting, unable and unwilling to get his life in order. The girl encourages him to pursue a record deal, and the guy emerges from his funk. Then he makes a move on the girl, who rejects his advances. He's confused, but as he comes to find, there's a reason she’s keeping her distance. Though Once is filled with appealing folk-pop by Hansard and Irglová (released on CD as The Swell Season), the movie isn't a traditional musical, but rather a more optimistic Brief Encounter. Filmmaker John Carney, Hansard's former bandmate, captures the real city--in all its affluence and poverty--rather than the picture postcard version. His beautifully shot film serves as a heartfelt ballad about all the underclass Guys and Girls swept aside amidst Ireland's economic miracle. --Kathleen C. Fennessy


Beyond Once on DVD

Musicals on DVD

Once: The Soundtrack

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Stills from Once





















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Rating: - Excellent Movie
My husband and I happened to stumble on to this movie. We first heard about it from some award show (maybe the Emmy's) last year. This movie won best song and when they accepted their award we noticed first because of their heavy irish accent, but also becasue they were so genuinely excited about it! So once we saw it come on one of the movie channels we had to watch it. We were both so moved how amazing this movie was for it's simplicity, love and heartache the main character portrays, and wonderful music. It even brought me to tears at one point. I think if you have ever loved someone and had a bad breakup or just even missed that person you will relate to this movie. It's really great, I'm telling you. We had to buy the movie and the soundtrack and add it to our collection. Totally recommend it :)

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Rating: - the importance of being earnest
I didn't dislike this movie. How's that for a compliment? Glen Hansard is certainly easy on the eye. AND I appreciated that they made a movie where the main characters didn't have to sleep together (a dead giveaway that it is not an American movie). But the songs to me all sounded the same, and earnest like they had something to SAY. And did they ENJOY recording their songs in the studio (in the movie)? Whatever.

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Rating: - Marketa Irglova
I'm gonna be honest and say that I;m giving this movie 4 stars because of the performance of Marketa Irglova. Take this novice actress away and replace her with someone else, and the movie will be worth less than half a star.
I didn't think the music was that great. I only find Falling Away and Marketa's piano piece about her husband passable. All the songs have too much angst to interest me much. Music aside, Irglova pretty much stole the movie with the scenes she was in. Her sincerity and occasional goofiness makes her shine through her dull male co-star.

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Rating: - touching to say the least
this movie is fantastic. it truly touches the heart and is particularly appealing to music aficionados. it is a great film to watch with your boyfriend or girlfriend.

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Rating: - NTSC U.S. DVD audio playback STILL wrong!
Now don't get me wrong, my two-star rating has nothing to do with the movie itself. Once was easily one of the best movies I saw last year, it is definitely one of the finest and most moving musicals I've ever seen, and has some of the finest music you will ever hear. My frustration lies in the U.S. DVD version of the film, specifically its audio.

I received Once as a Christmas present last year shortly after it came out on DVD. I went to watch it again and immediately realized the audio playback was wrong. It was half a step too slow, so all the songs were out of key and the voices sounded somewhat lower than when I first saw the film. I tried other DVD players and got the same result.

So I was disappointed, but I assumed that since the DVD had just been released this had just been an error in DVD authoring. Many DVDs have had to be recalled or reissued because of a glitch or mistake of some kind. So nine months later, the DVD is still circulating well and the movie is even being shown on HBO (and played perfectly in tune to boot), so I finally head back out and buy a fresh new copy of the DVD...and get the same result. The audio is still wrong, still flat, there are other DVD formats, a CD soundtrack and a TV broadcasting of the film offering sound evidence of an audio discrepancy, but nothing has been done about it.

This is why I'm so frustrated. I love Once, and I want to see it in its finest musical form. Too bad I live in the U.S. which just happens to get the short end of the stick in the audio playback department. My advice to any other U.S. viewers, watch the movie on HBO or watch the DVD on one of those Sony players in which you can actually adjust the audio pitch on the disc playback by half steps. Or just hope that the DVD is some day rereleased and something is finally done about this. What a frustrating setback for an excellent film.