John Carney’s ‘Begin Again’ is filled with the essence of hope. The film opens with Gretta (Keira Knightley) being forced to sing a song at a bar, enter Dan (Mark Ruffalo), a man who had caught up in a fight with his music label contractor just that morning. We now see Gretta’s whole song from Dan’s perspective, with drums and piano playing, this is the moment you know you have been sealed in for an endearing musical ride.
Soon, Dan approaches Greta to sign her in for a musical contract, initially reluctant, Gretta eventually agrees and they go out on a ride, more of a musical ride. This is clearly my favorite moment in the whole film when they share intimacy through playlists and guilty pleasures through songs. For both of them, music does the talking more than words, music fills every that space between them that was left blank. They bring each other hope in form of each other’s music, they go to places to make pretty music videos developing an unspoken love between them, that is never quite spoken about in the film.
More than love, the film is a beautiful ode to music that has the ability to pull people out of their darkest places and bring them peace, hope, and love. Both Dan and Gretta meet each other at that point of lives where have given up on themselves and the little hope that has still kept them afloat is music, and all they bring to each other is more music, mostly music that complements each other perfectly. The best thing about the film is it never brings the protagonists to become rockstars, the victory of the film lies in the fact that the protagonists just fall back in love with themselves which they had lost for some reason or the other.
Music is one of the strongest entities to exist in this world and also be a reason for the existence of so many, its so strong that every song we get hooked to has some memory attached, which comes back floating like a familiar smell in the crowd when we listen to that particular song playing in a distant alley in the subway. If you love music or make it ‘Begin Again’ is the movie you definitely need to catch up with if not already.
Text by: Sreyoshi Sil, IBTN9
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