Once

We took the plunge and tried out the itunes movie rental service the other night. We'd definitely do it again. No trips to Blockbuster, no having to worry about returning it, download was fast, quality was good enough for our TV. We don't watch movies hardly ever so it was a nice treat.

Anyway, we rented the movie Once as it was one of the ones listed under movies to rent for Valentines. (Click on that link so you can hear some of the music while you are reading the rest of this post!!!) If you enjoy music and a departure from the big Hollywood productions this movie is for you. Here are a few of my thoughts after watching.

This is a slower paced movie than what we are used too and it has a very indie feel to it. At times it felt too indie to me but there's just something about it that I loved.

I'll grade a few things based on my old elementary school scale of grading.
Story - good
Acting - good
Music - Excellent
Look of the movie - Excellent. (Being set in Dublin pretty much makes things look great automatically.)
Understanding the characters accents - Fair (The leading guy is Irish and the leading girl is Czech.)

Favorite parts.
- There was something really moving about when the "guy and girl" sang their first song together. They don't really know each other at the time but I felt a little teary at that moment somehow?!?
- It's rated R for language but I've gotta say that the opening scene, which has a bunch of the bad language, is pretty great. It was an excellent way to grab our attention and start the movie.

Things I didn't like.
- There are a couple of scenes that are just too set up. Most of the movie feels pretty natural and real but then there are these scenes that are just so "movie-like". I don't mind them once in a while as they are often needed to help tell the story but there was something about these I didn't like.

All in all a good rental. Maybe not so much for Valentines but it's still a great rental. I've been on their myspace page for the last couple of days listening to the music from the movie. Now I'm interested in checking out more about the guy who plays the lead part and his band The Frames.

The movie trailer is below. Enjoy!