Daniel Cann

The film is almost shot in documentary style and has a very ‘real’ feel to it. The Guy works at his father’s vacuum shop and also busks on the streets playing his guitar and performing well-known songs but is too self-conscious to play his own. The Czech girl meets his father and he meets her mother and young daughter. These scenes are convincing and touching. We learn the girl can play the piano and as things develop they finally have the courage to record The Guy’s own material with the help of his fellow buskers at a local recording studio they hire out.

I found this film to be a breath of fresh air after all the usual Hollywood excess and clichés. You feel that these are real people with real lives. Irglova plays the part of a young woman trying to find her way in a new town (and country) convincingly and Hansard is excellent as the tortured but talented guitar player and budding song writer. Despite being a musical (a genre that admittedly I usually can’t stand) I found myself getting swept along with this film and the characters aspirations. I was really rooting for them to succeed as a couple and as musicians.

The main strength is that it is true to life. The film captures two people whose lives have intersected and how they manage to help each other. It is familiar and typically ‘Indie’ territory but thanks to sincere playing by the actors it works so well. The locations are used to full effect, we move with the characters around the city. When they go for a motorbike ride in the countryside you feel like you are with them.

Thankfully the film never gets over–sentimental or mushy. It is understated and moves along nicely. For a simple straightforward feel-good night in I strongly recommend this.

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