Looking back, most would agree that no other year this century had a more top-notch lineup of films than 2007 (although 2019 would come to mind).
That said, it is somewhat forgotten that the year was also solid in its output of musicals. You had originals like Enchanted (which showed the world how alluring Amy Adams can be) and High School Musical 2 (though not as adaquate as the original in my book, the music to that trilogy had popularity like you would not believe). Then there were stage-to-screen adaptations, such as Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (one of Tim Burton’s very best films) and Hairspray, which took delight to a whole new level. Still, no musical (of any year) had me rushing to iTunes to buy the whole album quicker than Once.
When I first finished the film, I remember being floored by more than just the music. For example, when the credits rolled, I noticed I had gone through the whole film not knowing that the two leads did not even have character names. They are just listed as “Guy” and “Girl”. The former is played by Glen Hansard. He still lives at home with his dad and helps him with fixing vacuum cleaners while trying to make his name known on the streets, singing with his guitar.
He soon meets the “girl”, played by Markéta Irglová. A romantic interest obviously blossoms (the two were dating in real life around the time of the film), but the musical chemistry is transcendental.
Director John Carney would go on to do other musical drama films, including Begin Again (2014), Sing Street (2016), and Flora and Son (2023). When it came to this flavor of film, one may say that Once was not enough for him, but it was arguably his best (it would go on to be a stage musical). There would be other films that deal with artists trying to make it big with a studio song/album (most notably 2013’s Inside Llewyn Davis), but none had this amount of heart and soul.
Before going on this journey of my 25 films of the century so far, I made a list of my top 25 original movie songs (which I posted at the bottom of the page). Even staying away from non-original songs was challenging (I restricted myself to one song per film). While the list had a lot of adding, subtracting, and rearranging, the top song was always from this film. If you have seen the film, you know what it is. It won the Oscar that year. I envy anyone listening to it for the first time when they enter that music shop.
(As of this writing, Once is available to rent on Amazon and VOD).
Nothing else to say 