Begin Again

2014 • 104 minutes

About this movie

The latest film from writer-director John Carney (Academy Award®-Winner ONCE), BEGIN AGAIN is a soul-stirring comedy about what happens when lost souls meet and make beautiful music together. Gretta (Academy Award®-Nominee Keira Knightley) and her long-time boyfriend Dave (Adam Levine) are college sweethearts and songwriting partners who decamp for New York when he lands a deal with a major label. But the trappings of his new-found fame soon tempt Dave to stray, and a reeling, lovelorn Gretta is left alone. Her world takes a turn for the better when Dan (Academy Award®-Nominee Mark Ruffalo), a disgraced record-label executive, stumbles upon her performing on an East Village stage and is immediately captivated by her raw talent. From this chance encounter emerges an enchanting portrait of a mutually transformative collaboration, set to the soundtrack of a summer in New York City.

Ratings and reviews

Last year's Inside Llewyn Davis and this year's Rudderless are both far better films that use music as the centerpiece of the story. This film just did not connect for me. I really like the song Lost Stars and glad to see it is nominated for an award but the rest -not so much. I wasn't disappointed but will not make an effort to see it again.

I enjoyed this movie. I love pretty much anything that centers around music. And I connect with Mark Ruffalo's character as an apiring music producer who has an ear for what's good and what gets thrown out the car window. It does get a bit slow at times, especially in the beginning where they play the beginning from the viewers POV, Ruffalo's POV and then from Knightly's POV but then it gets into the real meat of the movie. I don't think there's really a "First act, Second act..." thing going on. It feels more like a whole story being told and you are just there to enjoy the ride. The real fun part is seeing these two phenomenal actors. And I'm pretty sure they are just friends throughout the whole thing, which is refreshing to see a guy and a girl hanging out and not having romantic undertones throughout the whole thing. We need more of that!

I really wanted to like it more than I did. Started out with some interesting characters and premise about a producer wanting to help a struggling musician and get his life back, but became cheesy and formulaic. Sorry, but it doesn't hold up to Once.