Once

Pseudo Spoiler Alert: I am writing about the movie Once below. I don't give away the ending but I do try to enter into the plot a little to provide some insight into the film. I don't think I give awaytoo much, but you may be really fastidious about what you do and do not know about a film before you see it.

There is a film that is out now that would be worth your seeing: Once. It's a lovely film about a man and a woman and their mutual love for music. The movie is, in fact, a musical of sorts--not the Sound of Music type but a new kind. The characters, played by Glen Hansard (of the Irish rock band The Frames) and Marketa Irglova (who has recently recorded an album with Hansard under the title The Swell Season which contains some of the songs from the movie), tell the story through songs--most of which were composed by Hansard.
What I liked most about the film was the way the music acts as a medium through which the characters approach each other. To paraphrase Wendy Shalit from her 1999 book A Return to Modesty, there was a time when it was widely considered necessarily sexual for a man and woman to simply be alone in a room together. There are plenty of scenes where the two main characters are alone and yet their music (along with a couple of other important checks) acts as a mediator, allowing them to transcend their raw (albeit good) desires for companionship. The music also is the thing that gives the movie an unfulfilling---yet at the same time, fulfilling--ending. I don't want to spoil the whole thing for any of you interested in seeing Once, so please go watch it to see if I'm on to anything.