Butler's Cinema Scene

Keira Knightley, Mark Ruffalo in “Begin Again”

“BEGIN AGAIN” My rating: B (Opening July 2 at the Glenwood Arts)

104 minutes | MPAA rating: R

“Begin Again” is only half the movie that “Once” is.

But it should still be enough to jump start the career of filmmaker John Carney.

“Once,” of course, was Carney’s 2006 art house hit about a tentative romance between a Dublin street busker and a Polish immigrant. This mini-budget wonder, largely improvised and featuring an astounding soundtrack written by the two “stars” (Glenn Hansard, Marketa Irglova), introduced the Oscar-winning song “Falling Slowly.” It was a new kind of intimate musical, and a bittersweet romance of epic proportions. (It has gone on to become a hit on Broadway).

But the ensuing years have not been kind to writer/director Carney, who used his newfound fame to make two instantly forgettable features: the clumsy visitor-from-another-planet comedy “Zonad” (2008), which was released in the US only on home video, and the supernatural thriller “The Rafters” (2012), which as far as I can tell has been seen by practically no one.

Which brings us to “Begin Again,” an effort to recapture some of the magic of “Once.”

It’s about music. It’s about love.

And it’s actually not bad.

Adam Levine

The quaint streets of Dublin have here been replaced by the busy bustle of NYC. “Begin Again” starts out in a folksy Manhattan club where the night’s attraction, Steve (Brit comedy genius James Corden), introduces a friend who is visiting from London. Her name is Greta, he says, and she’s a talented singer/songwriter. Would the crowd like to hear her?

Greta (Keira Knightley) is in no mood to sing, for reasons that will soon become clear. But, dragged on stage, she sullenly strums and croons her way through a vaguely dour love song. The audience soon loses interest — all except for a middle-aged man with a mop of unkempt hair who stands mesmerized in the center of the room. He hears something nobody else can hear.

In the film’s first 30 minutes this scene will be replayed three times from three different perspectives (thus providing at least one interpretation of the movie’s title).

But first, a couple of flashbacks.  The frizzy-haired guy is Dan (Mark Ruffalo), a music producer now fallen on hard times.  He may drive a Jaguar, but he lives in a shit-hole apartment and spends most of his day drinking. He’s got an ex-wife, Miriam (the ever excellent Catherine Keener), who still likes him but is weary of his boy-child enthusiasms, and a rebellious teenaged daughter, Violet (Hailee Steinfeld of “True Grit” fame). Dan is half owner of a once-trendy record label, but in recent years he’s been dead weight and  his partner (Mos Def) is moving to oust him from the business.

Greta’s backstory involves her singing sensation boyfriend, Dave (Adam Levine of Maroon Five and TV’s “The Voice”), who has been invited to the States to record an album for a big label. They’re a cute couple, both hugely talented (she writes some of the tunes Dave records) and deeply committed.  At least until Dave gets a taste of rock stardom and cheats. A heartbroken Greta says bye-bye and moves in with her old pal Steve until she can catch a flight back to Blighty. On her last night in town Steve takes her to the club where he’s gigging and where our story began.

There was an early scene in “Once” in which the two main characters — who have only just met — slip into a music store over lunch hour and together perform “Falling Slowly” for the first time. He starts out singing and playing guitar; she quickly riffs a piano accompaniment and begins singing along.  The results are magic.

With Hailee Steinfeld (center)

Carney pulls off something silimilar in “Begin” again.  As Dan stands swaying slightly in the middle of the club (he’s had a few), his producer’s mind begins adding imaginary instruments to Greta’s solo voice-and-guitar performance.  A drum kit at the rear of the stage begins playing itself.  An invisible hand picks up a bow and draws it across a cello. Pretty soon Greta’s little song is taking on anthemic power.  It’s kinda magic.

The movie is about how the hustling Dan convinces Greta to stay in the Big Apple and record an album. Not just any album, but one recorded on the streets and rooftops of the city; an album of one-take, no-overdubbed music played to the accompaniment of police sirens, buzzing helicopters, and noisy kids playing.

Various musicians are recruited for the effort, including a brother and sister team of string players, and a bassist and drummer whose services are underwritten by a hugely successful rapper (CeeLo Green) who got his start on Dan’s label.  Greta’s pal Dave is the recording engineer, manning the laptop.  At one point Dan’s daughter Violet shows up and blows everybody away with her electric guitar…apparently all those nights holed up her bedroom are paying off.

And then there’s the love thing.  At certain vulnerable moments, Dan looks upon Greta with the sad, yearning eyes of a Bassett hound. He wants something to happen.  But he doesn’t say anything. Nor does she. It’s just hanging out there.

The lead characters so perfectly match the talents and personas of Ruffalo and Knightley that their work appears effortless.  If neither breaks new ground here, they are absolutely right in their roles.

There’s no one songwriter behind the score — the tunes have been contributed by a dozen or more composers — so it lacks the singular musical vision of Glen Hansard’s work on “Once.” But the music Carney has chosen fits the story quite nicely, and a couple of tunes are catchy enough to leave audiences humming on the way out.

“Begin Again” may be only half the movie “Once” was, but it’s still a pleasurable, often laugh-out-loud experience. Welcome back, John Carney.

| Robert W. Butler