May contain spoilers.
With a rom-com loving
wife, I am occasionally on the lookout for good ones (as a film
pathological buff I’m pretty much constantly on the lookout for good
movies, especially Asian ones). When this proves to be an almost impossible
task, I settle for finding bearable ones. The genre is so predictable,
with awful lines, awkward moments, and the usual finale where the girl stands
on her soap box to declare how her feelings makes no sense, that she’s been
lying to everyone, and that she’s a good person deep inside.
I’d zoned in on one movie
with a slightly more promising trailer than the other rubbish out there and
teased out a time for us to watch it with Nikki. When Begin Again ended,
after a very pleasant 1h44 minutes, I cried out “YES!” Let me tell you why.
Apart from its awful title, it is a thoroughly enjoyable movie. It talks about a
musician and a producer who decide to record an album. Both are going through
personal issues, though they are at very different stages in life. It is a
movie that pits various elements against each other: authentic VS unauthentic
music, relationships worth fighting for VS ones that one needs to walk away
from, and it does so brilliantly.
Actually, it’s not a
romantic comedy, but just as well. It is a slice of life movie which blends
elements from romance, musical, and drama to make something which feels very real.
The excellent script has great lines and does a nice job of including and
contrasting British English speech and mannerisms with American ones. The
language is real, people swear with their guts but it doesn’t go the way of the
vulgar R-rated comedies which are multiplying over the pond. Mark Ruffalo
stands out as a fantastically nuanced actor, Keira Knightley impresses too. My
biggest shock came when I found out the lovely voice that sung her songs was
actually HERS!
But ultimately, I
yelled “YES”, because the movie ends with a good resolution for the main
characters. It upholds and honours them as people, in a sex-saturated movie
industry, where characters jump into bed on first dates at an alarming rate,
and even in a relationships-obsessed society, where it is impossible for someone
not to be with someone!
The French
actor-director-scriptwriter Alexandre Astier says comedy and drama are part of
life and therefore good movies should have their share of both. I think this
one does a good job of it, and with great music at that.
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