Warm, genuine, quiet, awkward, and quite thoughtful, even if truthfully sad.

An hugely charming evolution of the musical, shattering formula and giving us two very likable characters in the process. Some of the musical sequences last a little too long and some of the shots are a little shaky, but in pure (albeit quiet and subtle) emotional impact, it's impeccable.

Beautiful movie. The performances from the leads are so truthful and honest that you feel the impact of their amazing songs full on.

I am convinced that I am the only one on Criticker who was bored enough by the long shots and love songs enough to turn it off half an hour in. It's like so many others have said- the movie is nothing without the music. I didn't care for the music.

Sweet actors, pretty songs. A real love story, as in circumstances baby. Timing. Decisions.

Solid.

I couldn't get enough of the music, it was just so captivating. It was less about a guy and a girl connecting through music and more about music.

Cheesy, but the chemistry is so real in this movie.

Pleasant enough to watch, but there was nothing in it that I could get overly excited about. The cinematography is distracting, there was only one song I really liked, and the characters didn't really engage me. I appreciated its simplicity and earnestness, but I suspect it will fade from my memory pretty quickly.

Without the music this movie would be boring as hell, but the songs are great and they are definitely fitting the characters.

As one of my kumpels had said before me in his review: 'it is just that...sincerity". The car test part made me smile as I do audio mastering and perform the same final test :)

The music is catchy (even though every fucking song sounded the same). Ultimately a pretty useless film. To it's credit, it's actually a very earnest film. I didn't dislike it for what it was, it's simply not my kind of movie.

The songs aren't as poetic or as moving as everybody in the movie acts like they are. Also, I might have liked it better if I could better parse those thick frigging accents

A fantastic movie, very Brief Encounter-y and with similarly great music.

Decent music and an effective lead actor keep Once's otherwise boring music and weak love story afloat. The movie is brief, thankfully, to spare audience from what seems to be an hour and a half behind-the-music excuse to showcase the music. The lead actor is quite good at both singing and acting, which is rare in movies of these types, so it's at least easy to appreciate his work even if next to nothing else is anything special. I do recommend Once, it's just not as great as people say.

I don't think I can put into words just how happy this made me. Simple, yet utterly, heart-wrenchingly beautiful.

Honest and charming all the way through. Accompanied by what may the best compilation of music ever to grace the film industry. You'll be watching this a lot more than the title lets on.

Maybe I just didn't "get it," but this film just felt like a way to get their (admittedly beautiful) music out there. I liked the ending but the rest of it seemed a little pointless.

excellent, really touching

not so good little movie with nice songs and strong ending

I don't subscribe to the philosophy 'if you can't say it sing it', and even if I did, this formulaic love story doesn't have a whole lot to say. What starts out as a possibly touching romance from the lower class, ends up being a musical with only three songs, repeated again and again and again. And so, even if there are disarming moments between the instantly likeable characters, if you play the movie backwards, the lyrics goes: Buy the cd! It's in stores now!

Everyone who knows me would be very surprised to find out that actually I really enjoyed this movie. Great soundtrack too.

This score almost entirely goes towards the soundtrack, 'cause the movie, while not bad, ain't all that special.

A meditation on love, attraction and the grace found in making music is a tender charmer, full of perfectly pitched naturalistic dialogue and remarkably unshowy little achievements. Carney shows incredible patience, letting whole songs play out with minimal distraction, most notably on the initial duet on "Falling Slowly" and a nighttime stroll that accompanies "If You Want Me." These are great scenes that hint at the filmmaking integrity that Carney will carry through to the very last moment.

Suffers from some poor editing but otherwise this is a really well made movie, especially considering the budget. The songs were OK, didn't mind them. Marketa is cute.

The music is stunning.

Well that was quite a week. This movie was an ongoing onslaught of choppy music videos, and if you are not a fan of the music then you are in trouble. My date gave up approx 10 minutes into it saying "This movie is stupid. I can't understand what they are saying." I persevered and made it all 80 minutes, realizing that this guy is the lead singer from the Spin Doctors, and they would do better making this show into an off broadway musical production, Yes like they sing, "my mind's made up,"

Yeah, it was cool, I suppose.

Such a beautiful and happy movie. Hansard and Irglova really make the characters believable and warm.

A very well done film with a strong Indie feel. I would recommend it to anyone, particularly musicians. The music in the film is amazing and the story is far from cliche.