Once

Instead of bring you a song today, I bring you an 86-minute masterpiece of a movie titled "Once."  I've heard it referred to once as the best movie that no one's ever seen.  My thoughts exactly.  This week, I took it out from the library, not sure of what to expect.  I found a story interlaced with the singer-songwriter music that I've fallen in love with recently.  Who knew that a musical could be like this?  Gone are the chorus lines and showgirls.  Here is a group of misfits in a realistic setting, recording music for the love of music.

Starring Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, the duo produces several showstoppers.  Most notably, "Falling Slowly", the most well known track from the movie.  My personal favourite (so far, I'm still watching and there's about 20 minutes left for another great thing to happen) is current "When Your Mind's Made Up".  Recorded in a studio in the movie, it starts out slow and rises to a powerful crescendo, bringing "Once" to a climax that isn't the kind of climax you're used to seeing.

As I'm writing this, Irglova is preforming "The Hill' on piano, a song of heartbreak that ends in tears.  There is no low point here.  There is triumph in a genre that has seen one too many large-scale studio productions with actors who shouldn't be singing.  This movie is as real as a musical can get.  I'm determined to get the soundtrack into my hands as soon as I can, along with my own copy of the movie.  And some songs by the movie's stars. 

I've said it before, and I'll say it again.  The Irish can make music like no other.