| | 'once' is hardly a musical, despite its billing, and i say that with a little bit of disappointment. there are a couple of moments where it almost commits, and they are glorious moments that suggest that if the director had been willing, his movie could have been all the more distinctive and memorable for it, our experience of it all the more intense and lasting. as it stands, it's merely a wonderful film in which music plays a slightly more prominent, and at times nearly dramatic, role than in most other films. and that's just fine. but that also needn't put anyone off of seeing it. |