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Time for a random, sort-of unrelated but still sort-of related narration:
This is a "Berman throw back" (back, back, back..) from the Oscars in 2006 or 2007, I don't really remember. There was this foreign film titled Once that had quite a buzz attached to it, set in Ireland around a street musician hoping to finally catch a break having a chance encounter with a young, pretty (the pretty's not really relevant, other than the fact she's pretty) Czech immigrant who hit it off and then make beautiful music together. And then in real life these two actors/musicians fell in love while making the movie and got married and still make and perform beautiful music together. A song from the movie(there were many throughout) , "Falling Slowly," won the Oscar for best song in whatever year it was nominated. I'm too lazy to look it up and its irrelevant to my story so don't worry to much about it.
So while I've had their first cd for about a year now (I enjoy it very much; it's beautiful. Very simple, very passionate. Very heartfelt. Think broken-hearted lover, mostly. About half of the songs from the cd were featured in some capacity in the film. The duo also scored the film, but I do not own the soundtrack. But beautiful music. And simple. Like I said to begin with..) and I had kind of forgotten about not seeing the movie until I flipped to the Ovation channel and they were performing. The guy is/was the lead singer for the Frames, a band I know nothing about. But they played some newer stuff and also some of their older stuff off of the cd which I have (titled The Swell Season. Their names are Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova. I believe they actually call themselves "The Swell Season;" I don't remember exactly what the cd was listed under alphabetically when I bought it. But track it down all the same..)
So with all that being said, while at Bull Moose in Portsmouth Sunday I found a copy of Once and purchased it and watched it with Marie Sunday afternoon prior to the track and field (which I slept through...Usain is quick) and golf (which I was awake for the back nine) playing on television. And I have to say that I was very, very impressed. The music told much more of the story than the words spoken by the characters. If I try to describe it much more than that I'll probably ruin it, so all I can really say is if you have not seen it then you should. I just found it to have that quality where I watched it and when the credits rolled at the end I said "That is a good movie." I couldn't add a "because..." to it; I just felt it in my belly. And I trust my belly. You should, too.
It certainly qualifies as more of a chick flick. But not an awful, Hugh Grant chick flick. It's a chick flick because (in my opinion..) if it involves a (sort-of, which makes this particular film better, also in my opinion) love story and doesn't involve cars exploding, then it is usually a chick flick. But it's well-acted and very funny. I laughed harder and more often than Marie, but that should be expected because I seem to find awkwardness more humorous than she does.
One last point of information. The main characters are Irish and Czech. Really Irish and really Czech. So you need to listen closely. Well, you don't need to listen closely, you just need to listen closely if you're not quick with accents and want to pick up what their saying. So I needed to listen closely because I'm not quick with accents and wanted to pick up what they were saying.
And while I would usually say to characters: "You're in America, speak American," they were not, in fact, in America and thus they can do whatever they please and I will not be the one to pass judgment (And I would only say this to be funny and annoy the worldly and cultured people in the room, anyways. Because it seems to piss most of them off like few other statements can..) And of course the legitimate accents made the story much more believable compared to the usual big-budget, American film company sham job (probably starring Nicolas Cage..) accents. Just don't watch it if you're sleepy. I think that would make it difficult to watch. It makes most movies difficult to watch. So I don't see why this particular movie would be any different.
Go Netflix it. That is all.
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My personal favorite from their first album, a song titled "This Low." I couldn't find the Ovation TV one so the quality is a little less on point. But still very good:
If/when I get around to acquiring their second album I will let you know my thoughts. Cheers.
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