Before it was a Tony Award-winning Broadway musical, “Once” was a scruffy and charming movie, written and directed by John Carney, about a man and a woman united by their love of music and their unstated but obvious attraction to each other. Filmed at street level in the lived-in parts of a picturesque city, it managed to be touristic and authentic at the same time, partly because the central pair consisted of a native and an outsider. Mr. Carney pulled off the enviable trick of dressing unabashed romantic sentiment in a style that felt rough and real, so that every cliché he touched felt shiny and new.
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Begin AgainJUNE 27, 2014
trailer Trailer: ‘Begin Again’
A scene from “Begin Again,” filmed at a rooftop event space on West 36th Street.Summer Movies: ‘Begin Again’ Is Set in a Real New York of Real MusiciansMAY 2, 2014
In “Begin Again,” he tries to repeat the trick. This time the city is New York rather than Dublin, and the serendipitously matched musicians are played by real-life movie stars. Keira Knightley is Gretta, a British songwriter adrift in the city after a personal and professional crisis. A few months earlier (as seen in one of several too-slick montage sequences) she arrived with her boyfriend and sometime writing partner, Dave (Adam Levine). He had a big-time record deal and quickly succumbed to the temptations of the rock-star life, leaving Gretta crashing on the couch of a busker pal (James Corden) and planning her return home.