Once

I had a lot of backstory going into my movie tonight, and I hadn't seen it yet.

First, a while back I can distinctly remember seeing the trailer for "Once" and being committed to seeing it. I had to see it, and I had to like it. I knew I would. It was as simple as that. But the title along the way was lost to me and I had no means of tracing it. Not that I had taken the time. I always know that these movies have a way of finding their way back to you.

This movie found its way back to me. It was nominated for an Academy Award and, against all odds (three nominations for Enchanted, for Spaghetti Monster's sake), WON.

What had struck me about the trailer was the brilliantly, instantly emotional song "Falling Slowly." I had never heard it, I simply knew it was attached to this fictionalized love story for which all music had been originally written/composed by the actors themselves. But already I felt it tug at my heartstrings. And then, at the Academy Awards, watching them perform the song, the strings were pulled harder, even despite jeers coming from my hipster friends behind me. If it was true, and it really was cheez, then I was sold on cheez for once. It was a beautiful song, sung beautifully and passionately by two normal people (who may be beautiful, but not exceptionally so).

So to position number one on my Netflix cue it went. Straight to the front, I said, apologizing to the hundreds of movies that may just have to diligently wait until I watch everything ahead of them.

And tonight, I watched it.

I can do nothing but applaud this film. The music is elegant (and after all of these crosses with "Falling Slowly" I was brought to tears by both of its appearances), and the story is well assembled. While the acting occasionally falters, I was not remotely turned off by it. My attention was held from the first note of the first song of the first minute of the film until the surprising end, an ending which left me full of emotion - not because of any kind of resolution, but because of the lack thereof. I was still full of all the things I had been feeling until that moment, they were still at the core of me, as they are with the characters in the story's conclusion: unresolved, to be dealt with in my own time in my own way and to my own recipe.

I am so delighted that this film was an amateur endeavor from start to finish, that it has received the accolades it has, and that I have gotten to see it. I recommend it for anyone. It is inappropriate for no one. There are no cheesy love scenes, no poorly written climaxes, only a few curse words, and all of the themes that make us remember what it means to be a person. All within the context of the exciting things that really, truly, do happen in our mundane lives.

I suggest watching it.



Post-Script: I will try to tell you this more often, but I love you.