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| Tookey's Review |
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| Pro Reviews |
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| Mixed Reviews |
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| Anti Reviews |
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| Cast |
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| Released: |
2006 |
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| Genre: |
MUSICAL
OVERRATED
ROMANCE
DRAMA
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| Origin: |
Ireland |
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| Colour: |
C |
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| Length: |
85 |
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Once Is more than enough.
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Reviewed by Chris Tookey
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Never trust a movie in which the central characters don’t have names. Once is a sweet-natured, undemanding romance about a middle-aged, broken-hearted busker called The Guy (played by Glen Hansard, pictured right) who meets a young eastern European called, unsurprisingly, The Girl (Marketa Irglova, left). They find a common interest in drippy folk-rock. They almost become romantically involved, and… er, that’s it.
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Underwritten characters, an underdeveloped plot and songs that don’t punch their weight are the flaws in this likeable but primitive effort by Irish writer-director John Carney. It won an audience award at Sundance, which is not necessarily a recommendation.
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It strives for the same effect as Before Sunset, but it has nowhere near the same wit. It will be liked most by people who routinely praise under-budgeted films and feel that writers such as Richard Curtis do too much work for the audience, in terms of characterisation, plot and dialogue.
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Me, I think that films such as this are only half-written, if that. I much preferred Music and Lyrics, which covered similar ground with style, wit and far superior songs, which also had the saving grace of knowing that they were disposable pap.
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