(USA, 104 min.)
Written and directed by John Carney
Starring: Keira Knightley, Mark Ruffalo,
Hailee Steinfeld, Adam Levine, James Corden, Catherine
Keener.
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| Mark Ruffalo and Keira Knightley star in Begin Again, an eOne Films release. |
I’ll finally concede that there is something lacking in Anna Karenina: it’s a shame that Keira
Knightley doesn’t sing. It turns out that the versatile Miss Knightley has a
hidden talent. She has a lovely mellow coffee shop rock voice, and it’s a
beautiful lead for the harmony of Begin
Again.
This delightfully poppy ditty is the feel good movie of the summer. The infectiously enjoyable numbers of Begin Again offer a soundtrack that rivals recent movie musicals such as Inside Llewyn Davis or The Broken Circle Breakdown, although it might appeal to a much different audience, but it offers some equally memorable compositions. Writer/director John Carney, the man behind the sleeper hit Once, once again tells how songs of love and loss can define a person and ultimately set him or her free.
Begin Again asks
if a song can save your life. The great thing about any good art is that a
person can relate to a song, film, book, or image at any singular moment in
their lives and relate to it in the context of their subjective experience,
finding a word, a mood, or a meaning that seems to speak directly to them. It
can be a canned recording or an ephemeral live performance, but Begin Again touches audiences by evoking
how the arts enrich their lives and connect them with the people around them.
Take, for example, “A Step You Can’t Back,” the first song
Keira Knightley performs in Begin Again.
Her character, Gretta, reluctantly takes the stage at a New York nightclub when
her friend Steve (James Corden) puts her on the spot. She plucks her guitar,
sings her heart out, and receives mild indifference from the audience… from her
point of view, anyways.
Play the song on repeat, though, and the audience sees why
one drunken fool claps louder than the rest. Said drunken fool is Dan (Mark
Ruffalo) and Begin Again begins again
by revealing the lousy day that led him to Gretta’s song. Dan, in a nutshell, discovers
Gretta after losing his job at a record label he co-founded, humiliating his
daughter (True Grit’s Hailee Steinfeld),
getting wasted, and finding himself at the subway debating to jump. He gets
another drink instead.
Cut back to Gretta’s song, which opens with the breathy
line, “So you found yourself at the subway.” The hack record producer finds the
song as its fate. Carney shows Dan’s rocking’ inspiration by filling out
Gretta’s song with an invisible orchestra as Dan feels the song and gets into the
producer’s groove by imagining how drums, strings, and a piano can make this
song just as magical for the masses as it is for him.
The song has a remarkable payoff for Gretta after the end of
an equally bad break-up with her musician boyfriend Dave (Adam Levine of Maroon
5 and “The Voice” fame), who cheated on her when fame went to his head. Finding
a down-and-out A & R man looking to begin again is just what Gretta needs
to produce her music in her own eclectic way, and Dan proposes they record her
songs in the heart of the city. The shrewd movie is just as beautiful
cinematically as it is musically.
Begin Again is a
hymn to the independent spirit that endures in art and music. The innovative collaboration
between Dan and Gretta finds new ways to make music fresh and relevant in the
evolving era pre-packaged consumerism and disposable celebrity. Taking
ownership of one’s artistic integrity and vision is a greater possibility than
ever before, though, since the digital age allows someone like Dan to throw up
a spec recording studio with little more than a MacBook, a microphone, some
wires, and the trunk of a car. The concept of the outdoor album, however, transforms
the soundtrack of Begin Again into the
music of the people just as much as it is Gretta’s music.
The ambient noise and the hustle bustle of New York give the
sounds and sights of Begin Again an
eclectic energy. Gretta, Dan, and their ramshackle band reconfigure public
space as a concert hall/recording studio for the masses and offer live
performances, sharing their work and inviting the public to be a part of it,
and put a spring in the step of the passersby. The musical performances are fun
and funky, like a logical extension of Glen Hansard’s lovelorn ballads
performed outside St. Stephen’s Green in London, as Gretta and company record
by the seat of their pants in alleys, subway stations, and on rooftops. Carney
lets the metropolitan flavour of New York add to the harmony of the song as
Gretta and Dan touch others with their music.
The sense of possibility and discovery is equally apparent
in the strong ensemble of Begin Again.
Carney and company shrewdly cast the movie musical with a mix of actors with
minimal professional musical experience (i.e.: Knightley and Steinfeld) with
professional musicians with few to no screen credits (i.e.: Levine and fellow “Voice”
judge CeeLo Green). It works since have the pleasure is watching these
characters discover themselves and try something new. Knightley is particularly
strong with this standout credit in her filmography. Her beautiful voice—she sounds
a bit like Kathleen Edwards—is shy and soulful, and she mirrors Gretta’s emotional
arc remarkably through the performance of her songs. Ruffalo is excellent as
Dan, especially during the feverish scenes of artistic inspiration as Dan
envisions Gretta’s set pieces and becomes as excited as a young upstart. His
performance is a highlight.
The two leads are supported by a spirited bunch. Steinfeld
is strong and spunky, while Green adds ample street cred, as does Catherine
Keener in a small turn as Dan’s estranged wife. (She doesn’t sing.) Levine,
finally, makes a capable debut as the dick-ish Dave, although his final rendition
of “Lost Stars” is a showstopper that demonstrates how
much dramatic work and emotion further the performance of a song.
All the sparkling voices within the busy city, however,
shine best in Begin Again’s central
love ballad “Lost Stars,” which sees the culmination of Gretta’s artistic
vision. Gretta originally writes the song for Dave as a Christmas gift. It’s a
plucky acoustic love ballad as Knightley first presents the song in a raw and
soulful performance. The song appears again once Gretta wraps her album and
Dave presents the song to her on his own recently completed studio album. Dave,
now sporting a hilariously full beard that could house an army of bees, lets
Gretta listen to an all-out bastardization of “Lost Stars” as the studios
embellish it with poppy beats and rhythms. There isn’t any soul to it, and the
juxtaposition of the former lovers’ growth as artists shows the integrity of
Gretta’s path as an independent recorder. Dave pleads for Gretta to hear a live
performance of “Lost Stars,” though, and the final number of Begin Again is a beautifully cathartic
power ballad that returns to the central question of whether a song can save a
person’s life. Begin Again provides
some beautiful closure as it ends with “Lost Stars” and ensures that audiences,
like Gretta, leave the theatre in a state of bliss.
Rating: ★★★★ (out of ★★★★★)
Begin Again opens in Ottawa July 11 at The ByTowne.
