Review: Begin Again
Two lonely souls, adrift in the world, connect through the power of music. That simple story was imbued with such depth of feeling in writer-director John Carney's Once that it touched many a moviegoer's heart and went on to win an Academy Award and become a Tony Award-winning musical. Carney reprises the formula in his latest offering, Begin Again.
Gretta (Keira Knightley) is an English songwriter, aghast at how her singer boyfriend Dave Kohl (Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine) has allowed himself to be a cog in the starmaking machine. Dan (Mark Ruffalo) is a record producer recently kicked to the curb by both his wife (Catherine Keener) for his infidelity and his business partner (yasiin bey) for refusing to change with the mainstream music industry. When Dan hears Gretta sing at a local bar, he convinces her to sign with him and record an album all over New York City.
Many lovely moments abound which offset the story's weaker points: unnecessary focus on Gretta's relationship with Dave is redeemed during Gretta's realisation of his affair as she listens to his latest song; Dan's fractured relationship with his teenage daughter Violet (Hailee Steinfeld) is pedestrian at best, but when she plugs in her guitar and plays alongside Dan, Gretta and all the ragtag musicians, it's hard not to be swept up in such a joyous wave of feeling.
The best scene in the whole film - Dan envisioning Gretta's potential when he first hears her singing; her spare arrangement becoming more and more layered with the instruments he's adding to the song in his head - says everything and nothing about the film's musings on product versus packaging, authenticity versus artifice.
Yet what does it say when the authenticity that worked so well in Once comes off as artifice in Begin Again? In any case, the film is charming and enjoyable even if its moments never truly add up to a whole.
Begin Again
Directed by: John Carney
Written by: John Carney
Starring: Keira Knightley, Mark Ruffalo, Hailee Steinfeld, Adam Levine, James Corden, Catherine Keener
