A disgraced music business executive and a young song writer and singer gets to meet in a whole new city and their collaboration catapults them into stardom.
The wholesome, hopeful, let's-put-on-a-show enthusiasm may sound hokey but it's actually infectiously joyful. At the same time, Carney roughs up the edges just enough to make this fairy tale seem somewhat accessible and realistic.
The authenticity that was in inherent in "Once" is lost here on a cast of movie stars, and the music isn't quite good enough to elevate a cloying screenplay.
Begin Again is the best sort of summer movie, with great performances and a solid core. It's clearly a work that comes from love shared by people who enjoyed making it, and that makes it fun for us to watch out in the audience, too.
It's in parts painfully earnest, never more so than when Ruffalo sees instruments come to life while Knightley plays alone onstage, but it moves along at a nice clip and the recording scenes are shot well.