Post by t-bob on Jul 5, 2014 21:06:05 GMT -5
Begin Again
Drama. Starring Keira Knightley, Mark Ruffalo and Adam Levine. Directed by John Carney. (R. 104 minutes.)
Like "Once," also from writer-director John Carney, "Begin Again" features people singing on a city street, and it has a certain charm that's hard to define, but easy to recognize. The music is hit-and-miss, and the movie sinks into as many cliches as it avoids. But the characters are appealing, and the storytelling is just unconventional enough to keep an audience guessing.
At the center of the movie are Mark Ruffalo, as a once-powerful record company founder whose career has tanked due to alcoholism; and Keira Knightley, as the singer-songwriter he discovers after he no longer has the power to help her. She is a Briton at the end of her rope in Manhattan, and he's circling the drain personally and professionally, but there's a connection there, a symbiosis that could remake them both.
Howard Hawks said a good movie should have three good scenes and no bad ones. "Begin Again" has one or two bad ones, but one hands-down great scene that buys it a lot of goodwill. The setup for the scene comes in the first minutes. Greta (Knightley) is invited onto the stage of a small nightclub, where she sings a song in a tentative voice, accompanying herself on guitar. She doesn't exactly bomb, but no one notices her, including the audience - although one scruffy, middle-aged guy in the crowd seems very interested.
Retracing difficult day
Turns out that this is Dan (Ruffalo), at which point the movie goes back in time and retraces Dan's day, leading up to that moment. By the time we arrive back in that little nightclub, we're convinced that Dan is a hopeless wreck. And then the song starts, and this time we hear it, not as we heard it before, but as Dan hears it. He hears the voice and guitar, but also the orchestration. He hears drums. He hears a string section. In that moment something happens that mirrors the trajectory of the film. They are redeemed. Suddenly, he's not a bum, and she's not a bad songwriter. There are possibilities here.
After that, you might expect the film to go easy on the characters, but to its credit, it doesn't. Though Ruffalo's performance is not without a sentimental strain - his patented plaintive squint is given more than a workout here - he and Carney are uncompromising in showing Dan's depths. Ruffalo plays him as a damaged guy, and though the man might be attractive, the damage is not, and it's extensive. He's not beaten up in the way a 30-year-old might be. This is late 40s beat up, like life has been pummeling him with a baseball every day for decades.
Next to Ruffalo, Knightley looks like the essence of freshness, and she has never been more charming onscreen. Her smile is genuine, her poise is winning, and her singing is quite good, even if she sounds like everybody else on the radio. Knightley makes us believe that Dan is right, that Greta is a person of value, who deserves success, whether or not she gets it.
Adam Levine of Maroon 5 has a supporting role as the man in Greta's past, who goes on to become a rock star. I didn't recognize Levine and thought his acting was fine but that his singing was ghastly. In fact, I thought the whole point of the character might be that he was without talent, though in retrospect that doesn't seem to have been the intention. In any event, people who go into the film knowing it's Levine will probably have a different take.
Honest exploration
Some moments land with a thud. A scene in which Ruffalo and Knightley walk around Manhattan listening to music on each other's iPods should have been a highlight - like Woody Allen and Diane Keaton by the Brooklyn Bridge in "Manhattan." But the scene is wrecked by uninspired music choices, such as Dooley Wilson's rendition of "As Time Goes By."
Check it out!
Drama. Starring Keira Knightley, Mark Ruffalo and Adam Levine. Directed by John Carney. (R. 104 minutes.)
Like "Once," also from writer-director John Carney, "Begin Again" features people singing on a city street, and it has a certain charm that's hard to define, but easy to recognize. The music is hit-and-miss, and the movie sinks into as many cliches as it avoids. But the characters are appealing, and the storytelling is just unconventional enough to keep an audience guessing.
At the center of the movie are Mark Ruffalo, as a once-powerful record company founder whose career has tanked due to alcoholism; and Keira Knightley, as the singer-songwriter he discovers after he no longer has the power to help her. She is a Briton at the end of her rope in Manhattan, and he's circling the drain personally and professionally, but there's a connection there, a symbiosis that could remake them both.
Howard Hawks said a good movie should have three good scenes and no bad ones. "Begin Again" has one or two bad ones, but one hands-down great scene that buys it a lot of goodwill. The setup for the scene comes in the first minutes. Greta (Knightley) is invited onto the stage of a small nightclub, where she sings a song in a tentative voice, accompanying herself on guitar. She doesn't exactly bomb, but no one notices her, including the audience - although one scruffy, middle-aged guy in the crowd seems very interested.
Retracing difficult day
Turns out that this is Dan (Ruffalo), at which point the movie goes back in time and retraces Dan's day, leading up to that moment. By the time we arrive back in that little nightclub, we're convinced that Dan is a hopeless wreck. And then the song starts, and this time we hear it, not as we heard it before, but as Dan hears it. He hears the voice and guitar, but also the orchestration. He hears drums. He hears a string section. In that moment something happens that mirrors the trajectory of the film. They are redeemed. Suddenly, he's not a bum, and she's not a bad songwriter. There are possibilities here.
After that, you might expect the film to go easy on the characters, but to its credit, it doesn't. Though Ruffalo's performance is not without a sentimental strain - his patented plaintive squint is given more than a workout here - he and Carney are uncompromising in showing Dan's depths. Ruffalo plays him as a damaged guy, and though the man might be attractive, the damage is not, and it's extensive. He's not beaten up in the way a 30-year-old might be. This is late 40s beat up, like life has been pummeling him with a baseball every day for decades.
Next to Ruffalo, Knightley looks like the essence of freshness, and she has never been more charming onscreen. Her smile is genuine, her poise is winning, and her singing is quite good, even if she sounds like everybody else on the radio. Knightley makes us believe that Dan is right, that Greta is a person of value, who deserves success, whether or not she gets it.
Adam Levine of Maroon 5 has a supporting role as the man in Greta's past, who goes on to become a rock star. I didn't recognize Levine and thought his acting was fine but that his singing was ghastly. In fact, I thought the whole point of the character might be that he was without talent, though in retrospect that doesn't seem to have been the intention. In any event, people who go into the film knowing it's Levine will probably have a different take.
Honest exploration
Some moments land with a thud. A scene in which Ruffalo and Knightley walk around Manhattan listening to music on each other's iPods should have been a highlight - like Woody Allen and Diane Keaton by the Brooklyn Bridge in "Manhattan." But the scene is wrecked by uninspired music choices, such as Dooley Wilson's rendition of "As Time Goes By."
Check it out!
