Voilá! A guy and a girl with no names struggling to make it in the record business. A musical (cinema insists in categorizing it as such) that I loved because it showcases the process of art making, instead of singing the interactions throughout the story.

With excellent songs, these total strangers –Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova– smoothly introduce us to their own folksy music repertoire while they also perform the lead roles on this movie. How daring is that! Especially when your budget is as scarce as $150K.

Guy: [song finishes] Well, what do you think? Do you like it? It’s just a demo, you know…
Guy’s Dad: It’s fucking brilliant.
Guy: Really?
Guy’s Dad: Fantastic stuff. That’ll be a hit, no question.

The result is a refreshing movie filled with honesty and vulnerability that doesn’t feel like a musical at all and that makes you run to search on Google if this was actually the true story of their lives. It was not!

I had already written about the main theme song of this soundtrack, Falling Slowly, but I had no idea that the rest of their music was as beautiful. Of course, I already downloaded the rest…

What a melancholic, touching and well scripted movie. Absolutely recommended!