by Sydney Garrett, staff reporter
For many, music is just an enjoyable pastime. However, in musically-inclined director John Carney’s new film “Begin Again,” music defines the lives of many characters by driving wedges into relationships, preserving friendships and even determining fates.
The movie centers on the life of Gretta (Keira Knightley), a singer-songwriter down on her luck after losing her college sweetheart, Dave (Adam Levine), to the trappings of fame and stardom. Gretta meets an alcoholic, ex-record label owner, Dan (Mark Ruffalo), who is circling the drain. Together, they record an album that changes both of their lives.
The audience gets a decent introduction to Gretta and Dan, but, disappointingly, all of the other characters lack significant development. This is slightly forgivable because the movies focuses mostly on Gretta and Dan and their journey back from the brink, their journey to their new beginning. However, there is a whole slew of characters that could have added humor, friendship, love, and dimension to this movie. Dan’s daughter, Violet, is one such victim of underdevelopment. She is rebellious, maybe, but also maybe she’s not. Then, there is Gretta’s band, which seems to magically appear and disappear whenever convenient. The movie allows each member only a brief introduction before pushing them into the background. Many opportunities for interesting stories are lost with this group of mismatched band members.
Most of all, Gretta’s boyfriend, Dave, fails to become an actual character and serves instead as a dartboard for all of her anger and sadness. Adam Levine delivered his lines unrealistically, and, perhaps because of bad writing, bad acting or both, the character of Dave Kohl never became real. In fact, Adam Levine’s and Cee-Lo Green’s purposes in the movie are questionable. Both of their characters seemed like some kind of marketing strategy, rather than anything else.
Despite all of that, Keira Knightley is very charming in this film. She makes the movie real in all of the ways Adam Levine fails to do so. Her cute dresses and plentiful smiles seem to pull the rag-tag band together. The band’s performances around the city echo the feeling of summer, the invincibility and anything-goes attitude of it all. The one negative aspect of this part of the film is that Keira Knightley’s voice gets lost in the processed sound of each song. And because of this, while Gretta claims that Dave’s new pop music is fake, she is simultaneously producing music that sounds…just as fabricated. The weight of the message that Gretta’s character believes in (music should be honest and authentic) is kind of lost.
Although this movie is certainly not flawless, it is spirited and cute–albeit in a not-altogether-unique way. In short, this film is a nice, pleasant summer fling to go see on a Sunday night with a friend.
Image via the official Facebook page of “Begin Again.” Interested? Watch the trailer and get more information here.
