John and I watched the new indie film ONCE a few months back. The music was sublime and haunting, and rightfully received an Oscar for Best Song for "Falling Slowly," which, in my opinion, wasn't even the best song in the film.
Singers and songwriters Glen Hansard (of The Frames) and Marketa Irglova spend the film playing fictionalized versions of themselves in what can best be described as something akin to a documentary about recording an album with a simple and bittersweet love story superimposed upon it.
Spoiler Alert: I'm about to reveal some plot points and the ending....read no further if you don't want to know!
An Irish street performer has a chance encounter with a young Czech immigrant, and they quickly discover they both love music. She (we never learn their names) takes him to a piano store where the owner lets her play during her lunch hours (since she can't afford a piano of her own), and he teaches her a song he's working on. They immediately connect and produce a lovely piece of music. After just a couple of days or so, now newly inspired, he decides to go ahead and record the demo record he's been putting off for years, getting her to write lyrics to one of his tunes, and hiring other musicians and obtaining studio time (for which she helps negotiate a 30% discount). In the interim, we find out he's been desperately pining after his old girlfriend, and she's been separated from her husband. There are some really nice romantic moments and some amazing musical moments, but they never connect physically. You can tell they're falling in love, but it's not necessarily with each other. The film ends with him heading off to London to shop his demo around to music labels and to rejoin his old love, with the girl welcoming her husband back into her home and life with their little girl. To repay her for her inspiration, the singer arranges to have a piano delivered to her home. Their entire story takes place in less than a week's time.
Although you're pulling all the while for them to end up together, there are clues along the way that it won't work out that way. She remarks several times that he must still be in love with whomever he's writing these passionate songs about, and when asked if she's still in love with her husband, she answers in Czech, and never translates.
What I adore about this love story is that it illustrates how there are so many different kinds of love stories that we all play out throughout our lives. What I mean is, every new person who comes into our lives in any meaningful way creates a new "love story." I've most often experienced it in terms of creative collaboration. Working on a play, you get to know new people and/or deepen existing relationships, which I find to be quite thrilling, and emotionally similar to that feeling of falling in love. I also fall in love with the art created. Unfortunately, I think that's why "backstage romances" are such a common (and dangerous) thing--it's not necessarily that we're really falling in love with some one, but rather we're responding to the excitement of new experiences and deepened understanding. It's very easy to get caught up in those feelings and mistake them for something they're not. It's also easy to see how people become junkies, in a fashion, for those feelings, pushing and forcing them into dangerous territories in order to keep the rush going. The trick, I guess, is to figure out how to balance revelry in the rush with a sense of perspective, and realize that's the best way to truly honor the experience for the vital nourishment to the soul that it imparts.
The two characters in ONCE ultimately understand this. They come to realize that it's possible to find and embrace a soul-mate that's not necessarily meant to be your romantic partner. They immerse themselves in their amazing collaboration and, in a very short but intense amount of time, make the absolute most of what it is destined to be. Their spirits co-mingle and they fall in love with the act of creation and its sublime consummation.
Not a bad way to spend a week.
