Movie Review: Begin Again

                                                                   

Begin again is a 2013 musical drama written and directed by John Carney. It stars Mark Ruffalo, Keira Knightly, Adam Levine and Hailee Steinfield. This is John Carneys second musical, after his award-winning musical romance “Once”, and although not as good as “Once” was, it is a film definitely worth checking out.

I particularly liked this movie because it almost accurately portrays what goes on in the music industry. As a person who comes from a family of musicians, I know what goes on behind all the cameras and fame. There are literally thousands of people who deserve a shot at success but aren’t allowed one because what they do isn’t trendy enough, or it isn’t something which the crowd listens to. But this talk is for another article, onto the review.

Story

The movie tells the story of singer songwriter Gretta James and estranged producer Dan Mulligan. For the most part, there are no flaws in the script and the story is pretty much straight forward. The dialogue in this movie is well written and sounds natural. While the story does try to explore new paths during the movie, it pretty much never strays from its path and, for once gives me an ending which I could not have predicted from where this movie was going. That being said, the ending isn’t jarring nor is it unpleasant. It seems like the way things would work out in real life.

Acting

This is by far one of the best performances of Mark Ruffalo. He portrays his character so well, that by the end of the film, we invest in him, and feel happy for him, even though the movie actually starts with Keira Knightly's character. Keira Knightly does her character justice with her standard British accent, and is definitely relatable to a few real life singer songwriters, who write soulful music like her.

The supporting cast is pretty strong too, except for maybe Adam Levine. It is his first acting role, and it is sort of observable. He doesn’t have the ability to portray his character naturally I guess. But, as he isn’t too big a part of the film, it didn’t make that much of a difference.

Music

Being a musical, the sound design in this film is top notch. One awesome thing is that Keira Knightly learnt guitar and sang all her songs for the role. And the effort shows how much better the film is. Unlike our Bollywood and Tollywood films, the actors do not talk in one tone and sing in a totally different one, because somebody else has sung the songs. We can notice that, yes, it is the same person talking and the same person singing. Great job Keira Knightly!!

Conclusion and verdict

This is a movie which is well written and meaningful, especially for those in the music industry. Definitely check this movie out if you want something different and don’t forget to listen to the songs in the film, too, they are really good.

I give this movie 7 on 10. Definitely check it out, you won’t be disappointed.

Peace!!