Review 331: Begin Again
Gretta James (Kira Knightley) and her long-time boyfriend Dave Kohl (Adam Levine) are collage sweethearts and songwriting partners who decamp for New York when he lands a record deal with a major record label. But the trappings of his new-found fame soon tempt Dave to stray and a reeling, lovelorn Gretta is left on her own. Her world takes a turn for the better when she meets Dan Mulligan (Mark Ruffalo), a disgraced record-label exec, stumbles upon her performing in an East Village pub and is immediately captivated by her raw talent. From this chance encounter emerges an enchanting portrait of a mutually transformative collaboration, set to a soundtrack of a summer in New York City.
The plot is about real people, the characters don't feel as if they've been thrust into a grand Hollywood adventure, they feel like real people, people we may know, people with very real problems. The beauty and charm of the characters of Dave and Gretta is that they are people who been refused what they wanted but in turn refuse to take no for an answer and really that's what Begin Again is ultimately about: Persistence, Failure and Succeeding.
Persistence: Gretta James and Dan Mulligan are individuals who have been a bit down on their luck when we first meet them but haven't lost sight of their own potential: Gretta believes in her song writing and Dan is trying to get back into the game.
Failure and Succeeding: Begin Again is a very realistic film in that we as an audience don't automatically see Gretta and Dan as successful people, they start out as people with big dreams who first have to taste the bitter sweet flavour of failure. They start to succeed when they really start to enjoy themselves and take matters into their own hands and thats another great lesson this film teaches us, when you start to enjoy yourself and don't specifically look for fame is when success comes your way.
Fame is very elusive, you can't just reach out and grab it, you to really enjoy yourself and believe in yourself and that's when fame comes.
An astonishing thing about this film is that it's got a very spontaneous feel to it as it the actor are making up whats happening as they go along e.g. when they decide to record all over New York and including some of the children. This gives the film a Happy-Go-Lucky feel to it and it makes the viewer feel happy. Life is like that, good things and bad things happen and it shows real people going through these emotions.
Writer/director John Carney's direction is smooth and sensitive, the cinematography teriffic, the music scenes are stunning, the New York setting is admitadly cliched but in the way John Carney directs this movie he kind of puts a new spin on it, the production design is superb, the costumes colourful, the props are well crafted, each scene hits just the right tone/note be it happy, sad, funny or heartbreaking and the ending is really heartwarming.
The acting is mostly brilliant, Mark Ruffalo and Keira Knightly are magnetic leads in this movie. In more ways than one they are remarkably similar characters, they both start out in this movie in a state of disequlibrium (following Todorov's theory) as people who are down on their luck after bad experience, they both want to do something worthwhile with their lives, both have a passion for music, both have lost someone they loved and they struggling to make ends meet. It's their persistence that makes them great characters.
James Corden is truly jolly and loveable as Steve, Gretta's best friend, like Gretta, he has a passion for music, has big ambissions and helps her back on her feet. he also provides some humour which is nice, but it's tender and sweet as opposed to laugh-out-load-and he's very good at that.
Hailee Steinfeld is charming as Violet, Dan's daughter. She's the empitomy of a grumpy teenager but you can understand why she's the way she is, she's estranged from Dan, she resents the way he's living his life and almost wishes him to snap out of it and get his life back together. We hope that these two characters will find a way to make their relationship work in the end.
Catherine Keener, Adam Levine (lead vocalist of Maroon 5 making his acting debut), CeeLo Green and Mos Def round out the films cast all of whom deliver fine performances.
Begin Again is an utterly charming film, 4/5.
The Anonymous Critic.
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