Anyway, so Keira Knightley stars as Greta, a songwriter who has followed her singer boyfriend Dave, played by the aforementioned Levine, from England to New York City. He has recently had some songs placed on a movie soundtrack and has been flown to New York to record a whole album. At first, he's super sweet and committed to including Greta in the process of making the album, but within a month, he has dumped her for a record label exec named Mim (Jennifer Li Jackson). Greta goes to stay with Steve (James Corden), a friend from back home, and makes plans to head back to England the very next day. First, though, Steve takes her out to an open mic night and convinces her to get onstage and sing one of her songs. The crowd barely looks up from their drinks, but she catches the eye of Dan (Mark Ruffalo), an extremely down-on-his-luck, possibly alcoholic record exec who is separated from his wife, Miriam (Catherine Keener), and doesn't have much of a relationship with his teenage daughter, Violet (Hailee Steinfeld). He has also just been fired from the record company that he helped build; he sees Greta as his way back in. The record company wants her to make a demo, as is par for the course in the business, but Dan gets the idea that they will instead record an "outdoor album" all over New York. He assembles a group of ragtag musicians that includes Steve, a couple of students, a guy who currently plays piano for children's dance classes, a few professionals who owe him favors, and eventually his daughter, and they get started.
That sounds like kind of a lot of set-up, right? It kind of is, but the film handles it well; the film starts with Greta singing her song onstage to a disinterested crowd, then gives us the backstories that show us how she and Dan got there. It gives us these stories in a simple, non-cutesy way, meaning there are no subtitles labeling them as, "Dan: Down-on-his-Luck Music Exec," or "Greta: Recently Dumped Musician," which I could picture in a different kind of movie. And these stories are important, because an album like the one they are making could only be made by people who have nothing left to lose.
Literally all of my favorite movies (Walk the Line, Almost Famous, School of Rock, and That Thing You Do!) are about musicians or bands, and all of the movies on that list include both great soundtracks and iconic scenes centered around music and performance. Remember when the Almost Famous gang sang along to "Tiny Dancer" on the tour bus? Remember the sheer joy of Guy Patterson and the Wonders jumping and dancing around Guy's father's appliance store as they heard "That Thing You Do!" on the radio for the first time? If you've seen those movies, of course you do. They're scenes that illustrate what music can do: it can bring people together. It can make everything okay when nothing is. It can cause such pure, unadulterated joy that you just can't sit still. I don't love the music in Begin Again as much as I love the music in the aforementioned movies, but that is more a reflection of my own taste-- as I said, I listen to lots of pop, both pop rock and pop country-- than of the film itself, because we get plenty of the types of scenes I've just alluded to. Dan and Greta connect over a set of shared headphones as Greta shares her favorite "guilty pleasure" songs. Steve leads everyone in a game where he plays a song and sees how long it takes before they all just can't help themselves from dancing. Dan and Violet connect as he plays bass and Violet plays guitar on one of Greta's songs. Greta gets closure on her relationship with Dave as she watches him sing one of her songs the way she wrote it, without all of the overproduction that has started to take over his music.
As is probably evident, my very favorite thing about this movie are the scenes that illustrate the joy and power of music...but these scenes aren't the only thing I loved. The roles are all perfectly cast. The relationships play out messily, yet just right: Dave isn't right for Greta anymore as either a musical or romantic partner, but the demise of their relationship led her to that stage, in that bar, in front of that record exec on open mic night. There's a moment where you think there might maybe be something romantic or sexual between Dan and Greta, but they don't go there, and they shouldn't: they are making this album to get through or to something, and they need each other for that, but only that.
It's a great film. Our lives are guided largely by chance and shaped by messy relationships. And for these people, music does more than just provide the soundtrack to all of it.
That sounds like kind of a lot of set-up, right? It kind of is, but the film handles it well; the film starts with Greta singing her song onstage to a disinterested crowd, then gives us the backstories that show us how she and Dan got there. It gives us these stories in a simple, non-cutesy way, meaning there are no subtitles labeling them as, "Dan: Down-on-his-Luck Music Exec," or "Greta: Recently Dumped Musician," which I could picture in a different kind of movie. And these stories are important, because an album like the one they are making could only be made by people who have nothing left to lose.
Literally all of my favorite movies (Walk the Line, Almost Famous, School of Rock, and That Thing You Do!) are about musicians or bands, and all of the movies on that list include both great soundtracks and iconic scenes centered around music and performance. Remember when the Almost Famous gang sang along to "Tiny Dancer" on the tour bus? Remember the sheer joy of Guy Patterson and the Wonders jumping and dancing around Guy's father's appliance store as they heard "That Thing You Do!" on the radio for the first time? If you've seen those movies, of course you do. They're scenes that illustrate what music can do: it can bring people together. It can make everything okay when nothing is. It can cause such pure, unadulterated joy that you just can't sit still. I don't love the music in Begin Again as much as I love the music in the aforementioned movies, but that is more a reflection of my own taste-- as I said, I listen to lots of pop, both pop rock and pop country-- than of the film itself, because we get plenty of the types of scenes I've just alluded to. Dan and Greta connect over a set of shared headphones as Greta shares her favorite "guilty pleasure" songs. Steve leads everyone in a game where he plays a song and sees how long it takes before they all just can't help themselves from dancing. Dan and Violet connect as he plays bass and Violet plays guitar on one of Greta's songs. Greta gets closure on her relationship with Dave as she watches him sing one of her songs the way she wrote it, without all of the overproduction that has started to take over his music.
As is probably evident, my very favorite thing about this movie are the scenes that illustrate the joy and power of music...but these scenes aren't the only thing I loved. The roles are all perfectly cast. The relationships play out messily, yet just right: Dave isn't right for Greta anymore as either a musical or romantic partner, but the demise of their relationship led her to that stage, in that bar, in front of that record exec on open mic night. There's a moment where you think there might maybe be something romantic or sexual between Dan and Greta, but they don't go there, and they shouldn't: they are making this album to get through or to something, and they need each other for that, but only that.
It's a great film. Our lives are guided largely by chance and shaped by messy relationships. And for these people, music does more than just provide the soundtrack to all of it.
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