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ONCE

3 ½ stars

Starring: Glen Hansard, Marketa Irglova

Directed by: John Carney

Rated R for language

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The captivating Irish musical romance "Once" will warm all but the stoniest hearts.

The film chronicles the yearning mutual attraction between The Guy (an anonymous Dublin street busker played by Glen Hansard of the Frames) and The Girl (a nameless Czech immigrant played by pianist Marketa Irglova.) The Guy's a good fella. He helps out his aged dad at the tiny family vacuum repair shop, and during his off hours he sings away his heartbreak over a failed relationship on Dublin street corners. Usually passersby toss a euro or two in his guitar case. Occasionally a junkie will grab the case and lead The Guy a frantic chase until they both come to a stop, exhausted, and negotiate a resolution.

But The Girl offers The Guy her cheerful attention and says perceptive things about his songs. Back in the Czech Republic, she played the piano. Maybe he'd like to hear her practice at the music store that lets her sit in over her lunch hour? Maybe he'd like to repair the vacuum she uses when she works as a cleaner? She brings the canister machine to him on the street, dragging it by its hose like a poky dog on a leash.

Over walks and coffee they become chums, and then creative partners, as they collaborate to finish some of his half-formed songs. Though she speaks serviceable English, music is their common language. Over the course of a week they literally make beautiful music together. He begins to see the girl as a potential substitute for his lost love. She, hands full with a young daughter and aged mum, sees herself as a muse, not a life partner for her new friend.

No wonder "Once" waltzed off with the audience prize at the Sundance Film Festival. It's so simple, so lacking in frills, so bracingly sincere it's almost radical. Director John Carney (at one time the Frames' bass player) shoots the songs in unbroken takes, allowing his stars' expressive faces to do most of the storytelling.

Hansard and Irglova are magnetic performers with the kind of rapport no casting agent could provide. She's not an actor, and he's been in a film only once before, playing a small role in the 1991 Irish blues hit "The Commitments." But the novice actors are chums and even recorded an album together.

While they don't have much dialog, their songs are riveting. Music is employed here not for grand, show-stopping moments, but to advance the plot, bringing Him and Her closer through small, thoroughly believable steps as they use song to communicate feelings they couldn't express in mere words. She encourages him to record his songs, prodding him out of his inertia and playing alongside him in nonstop weekend studio session, an act of selfless love if ever there was one.

While there are complications that keep them apart, the film doesn't invoke hokey plot contrivances. Instead, it combines a gregarious Irish soul with the thoughtful delicacy of the best European love stories.

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