An unconventional love story, a dash of reality, some great music, and the inevitable air of the independent flick ... surely this should spell success (at least in the indie-world)... what could possibly go wrong?
Glen Hansard plays the jilted struggling artist who works at his dad's hoover repair shop and uses his lunch breaks to busk in the streets of Dublin. Markéta Irglová plays the struggling single mother, a Polish emigrant, trying to make ends meet. As female leads go she is refreshingly beautiful in the simplicity of her features - aided by the lack of OTT makeup - and the directness of her character's personality.
Glen's character is desperately looking for affirmation to soothe his bruised ego. A result of the adulterous ex-girlfriend as well as the hardship of daily life, heightened by his father's apparent disregard for his artistic expression (though later his father is to be redeemed). Markéta's character is in desperate need for anything to distract her from her mundane life which consists of work and the dank and impoverished one bedroom house she returns to where her non-English speaking mother tends to the needs of her grandson during her daughter's absence. It is therefore no surprise that these two find each other and become involved in an unconventional friendship which never quite manages to evolve into something more substantial, though all the elements are there for it to do so.
A distant image as possible from the artificial Hollywood diurnal routine, the backdrop of daily life in Dublin for the working class (native and emigrant alike - a point begging for some sort or political commentary which is absent throughout the film)is the first element to offer the audience a point of intense familiarity. The two leads are likeable (the female slightly more than the male, but then again the artist persona always exudes an element of disagreeable self-involvement, hence the script writer/director is forgiven for this portrayal of his lead) and their relationship develops at an agreeable pace aided by their musical escapade.
At the peek of their intimacy we see them share a peaceful day in the country side culminating with them standing apart on a cliff edge where he asks her whether she still loves her ex-husband to which she replies, albeit in Polish, "No,I love you."By now we possess enough knowledge of the leads' past to ensure that we appreciate their newly discovered intimacy for each other. What happens next? After a 2-day marathon to complete a demo tape for the male lead's imminent trip to London, the pair decide to ignore what they have managed to build up and return to their faulty (in)significant others - the girl to her unloving husband and and the man to his adulterous ex girlfriend.
Perhaps John Carney (writer/director) intended to present their union as nothing more than a short beautiful interlude from reality. After all the film is about music and the brevity of this couple's union reflects the ephemeral journey a song can offer before it is played out. In this instance, however, the ending seems completely out of place. The events leading up to the finale no longer seem to serve any purpose and this is where the film fails. There is no purpose to their union and consequent disbandment nor to the journey the audience is taken on before being thoroughly disappointed if not a little confused.
What looked like a promising film is nothing more than possibly an eighty-five-minute-long promotion for Glen Hansard's musical career. Though the film will not be memorable (and so not to end this on a negative note) it boasts one of the most natural romantic scenes and a powerfully haunting song sounding the beauty and injustice of unrequited love.
I don't know you
But I want you
All the more for that
Words fall through me
And always fool me
And I can't react
And games that never amount
To more than they're meant
Will play themselves out
Take this sinking boat and point it home
We've still got time
Raise your hopeful voice you have a choice
You've made it now
Falling slowly, eyes that know me
And I can't go back
Moods that take me and erase me
And I'm painted black
You have suffered enough
And warred with yourself
It's time that you won
Take this sinking boat and point it home
We've still got time
Raise your hopeful voice you had a choice
You've made it now
Take this sinking boat and point it home
We've still got time
Raise your hopeful voice you had a choice
You've made it now
Falling slowly sing your melody
I'll sing along
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