It's kind of embarrassing now, but when I first started dating my wife...well...there was this song. It was the first track on the CD (which I had to connect through a f--king cassette adapter [yes kids, that was a thing]) and I would play it as soon as I got in the car after spending hours enchanted with her. As much as I didn't want to leave, I was secretly thrilled because I was taking the first steps to seeing her again. I would play this song - as loud as I could get it - and basically f--king soar the half mile back to my off campus apartment. We were just starting out (this is pre-everything), and this was that time when my love for her literally consumed every waking thought I could muster. And that song? Well...
...it was the soundtrack.
The relationship between music and love, love and music (however you want to put it), has been depicted in movies a million times, a million ways. But never has it resonated with me as strongly as in director John Carney's Begin Again. Like that song that brings me back to one of the happiest times in my life, Begin Again is a film I could experience over and over. For me, it was just about perfect.
Though it's set in an extremely contemporary New York City, Begin Again basks in a timelessness. Taking nods from one of my favorite movies ever (It's not Jerry Maguire), this film tells the story of a once-successful executive abruptly fired from a company he started. It seems time has passed Dan by (a brilliantly charming Mark Ruffalo), and while the music industry has changed, he hasn't. He insists he still has it what it takes, even if no one really believes (in) him. Initially, I didn't either.
Meanwhile, twenty-something year old Gretta (the understatedly luminous Keira Knightley), fresh off a devastating breakup, decides she wants to leave NYC and head back to the U.K. She dabbles in singing and songwriting, and it's fitting that her last act in the city finds her performing one of her own songs to a room full of uninterested New Yorkers. Her man has rejected her, and the city is about to do the same. The song ends, and outside of her supportive friend clapping like an idiot, it's all coughing and clinking glasses.
Well...except for this one scruffy, half-cocked older gent. He thinks she's incredible.
You might be sitting there thinking you know how this is going to end, but honestly, if your assumptions are based on other movies you've seen, I think you may be in for a surprise. It's so sweet, perhaps bittersweet, but it's so f--king good, too. And for me, it all feels so honest. Sure, there are some insanely romantic moments, and Gretta and Dan see more beautiful days in a summer than I've seen in my entire life, but it's grounded in a reality that both feels fantastic and attainable. I want to experience what Dan and Gretta had, and honestly, I think I could. In fact....I think I have.
Look, I could ramble endlessly at how much I love this movie, but let me boil it down to my favorite scene (spoilers?). After a good day out, Gretta is perhaps overstepping her bounds, and delicately chastises Dan about the strained relationship he has with his daughter. Dan, hearing enough (of her uninformed bullshit), storms out of the restaurant, while a bewildered Gretta chases after him. In another movie, she catches up to him but he shrugs her off and keeps walking. Gretta would sit down, cover her mouth with her hand and bawl outwardly. Dan wouldn't even look back, and skulk off into the distance. But here, Gretta catches him, and without saying a word, hugs him. And with that, they each realize their mistake, and go talk it over. It's a simple scene, but it's so sweet and so sincere, there's something almost magical about it.
Not very sweet, sincere, or magical in the least, are the Yays and Boos. They too were brought back to another time while watching this movie, but I couldn't quite grasp what they were trying to tell me. Then I found a mixtape on my windshield the next day, and it all became quite clear....
...it was the soundtrack.
Though it's set in an extremely contemporary New York City, Begin Again basks in a timelessness. Taking nods from one of my favorite movies ever (It's not Jerry Maguire), this film tells the story of a once-successful executive abruptly fired from a company he started. It seems time has passed Dan by (a brilliantly charming Mark Ruffalo), and while the music industry has changed, he hasn't. He insists he still has it what it takes, even if no one really believes (in) him. Initially, I didn't either.
Meanwhile, twenty-something year old Gretta (the understatedly luminous Keira Knightley), fresh off a devastating breakup, decides she wants to leave NYC and head back to the U.K. She dabbles in singing and songwriting, and it's fitting that her last act in the city finds her performing one of her own songs to a room full of uninterested New Yorkers. Her man has rejected her, and the city is about to do the same. The song ends, and outside of her supportive friend clapping like an idiot, it's all coughing and clinking glasses.
Well...except for this one scruffy, half-cocked older gent. He thinks she's incredible.
You might be sitting there thinking you know how this is going to end, but honestly, if your assumptions are based on other movies you've seen, I think you may be in for a surprise. It's so sweet, perhaps bittersweet, but it's so f--king good, too. And for me, it all feels so honest. Sure, there are some insanely romantic moments, and Gretta and Dan see more beautiful days in a summer than I've seen in my entire life, but it's grounded in a reality that both feels fantastic and attainable. I want to experience what Dan and Gretta had, and honestly, I think I could. In fact....I think I have.
Look, I could ramble endlessly at how much I love this movie, but let me boil it down to my favorite scene (spoilers?). After a good day out, Gretta is perhaps overstepping her bounds, and delicately chastises Dan about the strained relationship he has with his daughter. Dan, hearing enough (of her uninformed bullshit), storms out of the restaurant, while a bewildered Gretta chases after him. In another movie, she catches up to him but he shrugs her off and keeps walking. Gretta would sit down, cover her mouth with her hand and bawl outwardly. Dan wouldn't even look back, and skulk off into the distance. But here, Gretta catches him, and without saying a word, hugs him. And with that, they each realize their mistake, and go talk it over. It's a simple scene, but it's so sweet and so sincere, there's something almost magical about it.
Not very sweet, sincere, or magical in the least, are the Yays and Boos. They too were brought back to another time while watching this movie, but I couldn't quite grasp what they were trying to tell me. Then I found a mixtape on my windshield the next day, and it all became quite clear....
Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!
- The music.
- Our opening moments with Dan are awesome. Initially, he seems like the most charming a-hole ever.
- I've never run out of a kafe without paying the tab, but if I do? Well, I hope it ends the same way it did here. More people should shake hands after that.
- The timeline is unexpectedly loose. I loved it.
- Dan has a vision of what Gretta's little song could be and it's represented brilliantly.
- Anytime glasses are raised to Randy Newman...that's a Yay. I'm sorry: rules are rules.
- The guy that played her friend was awesome. This dude is not only talented and kind, but when it comes to tea? He's cool to just wing it.
- I quit. Good luck, girls. I laughed my ass off here.
- Even though it seemed like I was watching a much more bearable (and shorter) episode of The Voice for a minute, I actually enjoyed my time with ol' Alligator Arms, Cee-lo Green. What a good dude.
- Like a Fool has just about the best song ending ever. Well, outside of Guns 'N Roses first version of Don't Cry anyway.
- Holy shit. Dan's reaction to drinking Pepsi? F--king hysterical. (I need to stop drinking soda)
- Even though I touched on it earlier, let me say that I feel that Ruffalo and Knightley were perfect in this movie. I know they both always deliver, but what they did here was beyond good.
- Sati, at cinematic corner. I should probably give her a Yay in every single post I write, but she's a huge fan of this one, and without her (possibly crazy) adoration of this film, there's a good chance I never would have seen it. Yet again, I owe her. Big time.
- And finally, like any constantly daydreaming a-hole, I've always found that even something unspectacular can look utterly breathtaking on film. In Begin Again, and I will argue this til the end of time, we are privvy to what is quite possibly the best date ever. Few things I have ever wanted more for myself than that night shared between Dan and Gretta. If I could meet my wife again...this totally happens.
 |
| The only Boo here is that I don't own the soundtrack. Yet. |
Boooooooo!
- She ultimately redeems herself, but I've grown somewhat tired of bored and irritated Catherine Keener.
- C'mon, Dan. She's gotta buy the beers?
- Dave. I haven't mentioned him...but I've got a few problems with this guy. First, what's up with his creeper-stache?
- Or his Gepetto-influenced wardrobe?
- Okay, even though I liked what it meant to everyone, Violet's guitar playing was a bit silly. Though it did remind me of this guy that was doing work on our house when I was a kid. He comes into my room, where my brother's guitar is leaning against the wall, and says, "You swing that axe or just stare at it all day?" Needless to say I had no idea what the f--k he was talking about. Kind of like you now.
- Sure, it's eventually endearing, but we might have a cinematic record for use of the term babe.
- That was kind of a strange scene to put in the credits, no?
- And finally, the ending. I actually loved it. Like, I almost started clapping (alone in my living room) I adored it so much. But....damn. I can't believe that line was never crossed...not even a little.
Eventually that magic time in a relationship ends, and everything that was special sadly becomes routine. My wife and I started our relationship right around Christmas time, fourteen years ago. And while my music tastes have certainly changed, it shouldn't surprise you that every now and then I fire up that song to instantly take me back. And, between you and me, every time it ends? I always press back at least once. Just to hear the beginning, you know, again.