I’m not a huge fan of musicals so when I heard about writer/director John Carney’s modern day musical “Once” I wasn’t excited to see it. A friend of mine told me that the flick was amazing and after insisting that I see it loaned me the DVD. I left the flick on my table for about a week because I really wasn’t interested in it, but once (pun intended) I popped the disc into the DVD player I started to heavily regret the fact that I didn’t see this picture in a theater.

Guy (Glen Hansard) is a musician singing and playing his heart out on street corners doing his best to get his songs to the people when a girl stops by to listen to him play and changes his world overnight. The Girl (Marketa Irglova) Guy finds out is also a musician and after playing one of his songs with her at a local music store a musical bond is formed. Guy decides it’s time to make a record and gathers up a band including Girl and sets off to make his dreams come true.

When I heard the word musical attached to the film I was turned off, but this is not a musical in the vein of films like “Grease,” it is a musical because the entire film revolves around the music the two leads make together. I would say that at least 60% of the film is comprised of songs performed by the actors, and the music they perform is amazing. Both of the leads are real musicians, with Glen playing in the band “The Frames” and Marketa a professional as well.

The film is brilliantly directed and every frame is as captivating as the wonderful music contained within it. I hadn’t heard of John Carney, but you can be sure that I will closely follow his career from this point on. I would recommend that everyone not only pick up this flick, but also pick up the soundtrack as well because this is a killer film with some killer music in it.