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Published: January 5, 2008

Talk About Movies

Matthew Lickona and Ernie Grimm discuss current and classic films from a Catholic perspective

Once
Directed by: John Carney
Starring: Glen Hansard, Marketa Irglova
2006, 85 minutes, English/Czech, Color, Ireland
Bishops' rating: A-III

Ernie: Five hundred F-words notwithstanding, there was a lot of neat stuff in this movie. Her family and his family were portrayed well. They're not perfect, but there's love and devotion there. Her instant repugnance to his sexual advances was great. It had a great effect on him. He instantly realized what he'd done was wrong, and he apologized the first time he saw her. And, to her credit, she forgave him. It was great to see it shown on film that cheap pre-marital sexuality drives people apart instead of bringing them together. And it went counter to the trend of modern filmmakers who don't seem to understand that love stories lose tension when boy and girl get sexual.

Matthew: That scene was handled brilliantly. He wasn't a seducer, or even a cad. He was just a weak, lonely guy. Having struck up a genuine relationship with a woman, his natural inclination -- unchecked by moral conviction -- was to seek a kind of consummation, a connection to ease the loneliness -- we've become intimate, let's keep going with that intimacy. It's not a sleazy move, just a pathetic one. And because she's high-minded, it has the opposite effect from what he intended. (Actually, it would have most likely had the opposite effect from what he intended even if she *wasn't* high-minded, but at least this way, there was no lasting damage done.) Wonderful to see a romantic comedy(?) -- or at least, a love story of sorts -- in which the sacrificial character of love -- in this case, the ties that bind -- is given consideration. He's trying to console her in her sorrow, and he makes a natural suggestion: “Let's run away. Go somewhere else where all these problems won't haunt us." Her response: "And can I bring my mom?" She knows she can't just run, and it's what makes her so lovable.

Ernie: The girl is written as an embodiment of truth and grace to our boy. She teaches him that intimacy between people is not about sexuality. She shows him that his musical efforts are good for their own sake at a time when he seems to be losing faith in that ideal. She helps him lose his resentment against his old girlfriend who moved away to London. And, by welcoming her own husband back, she shows him that family responsibility is more of a joy than a drag. She teaches him the joy of giving. She even makes his music better. And it's fitting that she's a foreigner because her foreignness represents the idea that grace, though it acts internally, is external to us.

Matthew: And in the end, the presence of grace gives him the opportunity to cooperate -- to do something genuinely good and selfless. Oh, I like that. And unlike the women-as-grace who drop into a film like Sideways (Virginia Madsen falling for Paul Giamatti?), the girl is also an actual person. With a family. And a job. And a larger community. Just like the guy has.

Ernie: Are you channeling? Ernest Hemingway? To die. In the rain. Unlike in Sideways. This grace-woman is. Not a slut.

Matthew: Two more favorite things, these having to do with the making of art. One, the victories they achieve are small, and personal. And two, the film never comes out and draws the line between the endurance of hardship and the creation of beauty, but I think it's there to be drawn. All his best stuff is drawn from his heartbreak. And you get the feeling that music is a life-preserver for her -- that hour of playing the piano in the shop during lunch is a balm to her soul. And my two favorite moments in the film are the final shot and the scene in which she has to "borrow" from her daughter's piggybank to buy batteries for the CD player so she can finish writing lyrics to his music.

Ernie: I loved that final scene, too. There are bittersweet tones of sadness, redemption, hope, and joy all in a few dialogue-free shots.

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