Review of Begin Again (2014) by Lasttimeisaw — 06 Aug 2015

From Irish director/writer John Carney (also the of the indie dark-horse ONCE (2006, 8/10), BEGIN AGAIN is an urban symphony of NYC, stars two bankable names of Knightley and Ruffalo.

Originally titled CAN A SONG SAVE YOUR LIFE?, which is more literal to describe the chance meeting between Dan Mulligan (Ruffalo) and Gretta James (Knightley), Dan is a damaged good, with the usual trappings, a middle-aged man abandoning himself to alcohol, separated with her wife Miriam (Keener) and distanced with their teenage daughter Violet (Steinfeld), once a promising executive of an indie record label, but now he is just fired by his business partner Saul (Bey) in the presence of Violet. It is the worst day of his life, and he is seriously considering to end his own life until he watches Gretta performing her own song in a bar, he is immediately attracted by her unsophisticated frankness in her music, and decides to sign her (although this is not up to him and he brings her to Saul to see if they can reach for a record deal).