What cost $160,000 to make, featured two people that had never acted before, won an Oscar, the Sundance audience award and prompted Steven Spielberg to say that the movie “gave me enough inspiration to last the rest of the year”?
The answer is Once, a story of a week in the life of a couple who meet in Dublin, told mainly through the medium of the songs they sing. It’s a charming enough little story, but it is the songs that really shine, written and performed by the two musicians who play the lead roles.
I had downloaded and watched the movie some time ago, but did not share it with she who must be obeyed because I was sure she would not be able to cope with the broad Irish accents. But now the movie has been released in Thailand, which means it only costs 189 baht, and it comes with Thai subtitles.
So two nights ago we sat down to watch it. She sat quietly for a while, but when the Oscar winning song came along, which she had never heard before, she became highly animated and told me she really, really loved the song. Further into the movie, another song, and she jumped up and said it made her feel happy and wanting to dance, which she proceeded to do and I wished I had had a camera ready.
Last night we were working on our computers and I started playing the soundtrack. She started singing along to every song, knew exactly where they fitted into the movie (which is more than I could remember) and had printed out all the lyrics. By the end of the evening she had converted some of the songs into ring tones; it is fair to assume she is rather taken with Once.
This is a song from the movie, performed live, outdoors; still sounds good: