The film is a modern-day musical set on the streets of Dublin about a thirty-something busker and a Czech immigrant during an eventful week as they write, rehearse and record songs that reveal their unique love story.
Once doesn't plop its emotions on its characters' sleeves, and it trusts us enough to leave some of the best stuff unstated. In other words, it trusts us to know that half the music lies between the notes.
In an era when Hollywood has largely lost the ability to distinguish between romance and sex, Once is the rare film that recognizes that love is no less love for being held in check, it is merely a different kind of love.
There is much to admire about Once, in a little-movie-that-could kind of way, but it can't help but get in its own way just when it begins to gain some momentum
Forget everything you think you know about the movie musical, one of the more predictable genres. With Once, writer-director John Carney deconstructs it and reinvents it as something wholly new, inspired and alive.
Roger Moore
Orlando Sentinel
June 28, 2007
This lovely tale of a love affair between a Dublin street musician and a flower girl will leave you wistful for more. It's a movie to fall in love with and a movie to fall in love during. It is the most naturalistic musical ever.
Pablo Villaça
Cinema em Cena
April 19, 2008
Um filme mágico que, através de sua narrativa enganosamente simples, alcança uma vitória que escapa à maioria das obras do gênero, retratando com sentimento o instante preciso no qual dois seres humanos se descobrem apaixonados um pelo outro.
