Dublin based writer director John Carney came to the world’s movie goers’ attention with the crowd and critic pleasing ONCE. In a previous life, John had been bassist in the Irish rock band, The Frames. These musical roots continue to flavour his work, evident in his latest film, BEGIN AGAIN.
Dumped by her rock star boyfriend, songstress Gretta (Keira Knightley) finds solace and a sofa from her fellow expat Brit muso, Steve (James Corden).
He’s got a gig in a downtown dive and persuades her to do a song. Present is a washed up record producer, Dan (Mark Ruffalo) who sees and hears a potential musical goldmine in Gretta’s voice and lyrics. It’s an epiphany imaginatively captured in a combination of the aural and the visual, a motif that runs right through this marvellous and uplifting movie.He woos and wins her with the wild idea of creating an album recorded in the raw, – in alleyways, parks, rooftops, street corners, cars.
Like a recording Robin Hood, Dan gets a band, instruments, sound gear together and leads a merry group in the making of some very fine tunes. He’s a man invigorated, getting back in touch with the latent talent that seems to have lain dormant lately.
His mojo and his marriage to Miriam (Catherine Keener) have been moribund and his relationship with his daughter, Violet, (Hailee Steinfeld) disconnected, but all that goes into turn around in the pursuit of this profoundly uplifting project. Gretta not only acts as muse but as facilitator to reconciliation, urging Dan to allow his daughter to join the band, a nepotism that nourishes respect and nascent ability.
BEGIN AGAIN could have been a mawkish, sentimental shambles, but the quality of the writing, the deftness of the direction, and the performances of every single cast member assures there is an honesty and truth to the story.
Knightley, free from the constraints of costume corsetry which seems to have been her cinematic mainstay, is gorgeously, glowingly contemporary. Ruffalo, always appealing in that rough and ready quality that’s become a signature, exudes charismatic tattered charm, a boy wonder has-been who refuses, despite dipso relapses, to go gently into that good night without a fight.
The New York locations are rendered as lovingly as a Woody Allen movie and the original songs do double duty of not only supplying a fantastic soundtrack but reflecting the emotional state of the characters.
A film with music, about music, but not a musical, per se, where characters cheesily break into song, BEGIN AGAIN is a smart, snappy, funny and joyful film that deserves a wide audience
BEGIN AGAIN shows ONCE was no fluke, flash in the pan, and that film maker John Carney is no one hit wonder. Like ONCE, you’ll want to see BEGIN AGAIN again.