Once: Reception & Reviews

“Some love stories have a better ending than the alter" - A. O. Scott, New York Times Review.

Not only is Once an nontraditional love story, it has redefined the genre of musical. The popular appeal of such a simplistically styled story of musical soul mates is combined with hopeful idealism and emotional reality that together is what critics are calling a modern day musical. What else are the critics saying?...

Boston Globe: “Once is the first rock musical that actually makes sense. People don't burst into song in this movie because the orchestra's swelling out of nowhere. The guy and the girl are working musicians "

( Once way to think of Once is as an undone version of Oklahoma or Dreamgirls (released the same year). Songs are dialogue, but to convey emotional intensity and communicate the plot without the choreographed line dances and over the top show tune numbers we expect in a traditional 'musical.' )

Seattle Post-Intelligencer “A miracle of a movie that is both fairy tale and slice of life.”

( I wonder, is this why the ending is so profoundly sad and beautiful simultaneously? It has the fairytale storyline with the “slice of life” ending in the harshness of reality, making Once a contemporary love story for the romantics and the cynics alike. )

Portland Oregonian:“Music aside, what finally puts Once over and makes it a film you can watch more than once is its slight but thoroughly credible realism. “

( Can you watch it more than once, as the title suggests? Some of us have found this movie can only be watched once; why is this? Is the emotional reality too tragic to relive or like the main character's relationship is this movie a temporary moment, framed in once single chance encounter not to be rewound and rewatched?)

Austin Chronicle: “Ultimately, Once transcends even its own ambitions, becoming a complex meditation on relationships, Irish culture, and music. "

Awards