To get to the point. I now know Adam Levine as the one false note in John Carney's near perfect musical film, Begin Again. Yes, he sings well enough in that human-fluting grandstandy moany style of music that works well with beards, angst and teenage girls, but as an actor he is unforgivably flat. In his defence, he was acting shoulder to shoulder with Mark Ruffalo and Keira Knightly, so he was always going to pull up short, and it is not like we expect either of them to sing well.
But they do.
Knightly's musical talents are actually a revelation here. As Greta, a young British songwriter wronged by Levine's pop-rock-god shenanigans and left solo in New York City, Knightly is luminous. Surprisingly, her voice carries at least half of that brilliance. Another quarter can be put down to her snappy chemistry with fellow brit James Corden, who plays her pick-me-up friend Steve. To pick her up, Steve takes Greta down to the open mic he hosts. There, after being dragged up onstage to sing one of her songs, she's set upon by drunk Mark Ruffalo's Dan, a music producer who has also recently found himself out on his arse. He proposes they make beautiful music together. They do.
The film's former title, Can a Song Save Your Life?, is forthright with Carney's themes here, and the film as a whole, even under its new moniker, isn't necessarily subtle. But it wears its thematic bluntness with tuneful pride and ultimately wins out. Carney, whose similarly charming previous film, Once, recently went through the stage adaptation processes, has picked up more than a few pointers on how to integrate song and drama. Begin Again's musical affectations are entirely organic, even more so than those moments of musical clarity that sprang from Once's busker conceit. This time around Carney goes broader.
That broadness is relative, though, and Carney pulls it off without losing any of the intimacy of his previous work. He works off well worn musical comedy clichés, without succumbing to the genre's propensity for easily digestible happy endings. All this is managed with just a hint of self-knowing cleverness, balanced out by the film's bursting affability.
Carney stocks his film with an overabundance of personalities, some of them very strange bedfellows, and he orchestrates them to perfection. He top-notes the drama with a musical survey of some of NYC's auditory corners (which admittedly does tend towards the touristy) and allows his central relationship to resonate with bass lines from Greta and Dan's backstories. Those underscoring narratives are wonderfully performed by Carney and his supporting players. Catherine Keener and Hailee Steinfeld give surprising depth to the family Dan is absent from, CeeLo Green brings a little street cred as one of Dan's former success stories and Mos Def, as Dan's former partner, Saul, opens the film up for some incisive jabs at the state of the music industry, something Levine gives more than a little assistance with.
And to give Levine his credit, his final scene plumbs his musical talent for every fathom of dramatic depth. Can a song save your performance? He almost redeems himself. It is where he's at his best, it is where Carney's at his best and it is where Begin Again is at its best.
Begin Again is a real gem. It is musical without being a musical. It is breezy without being fatuous. It is romantic without being patronising, air-headed or sexist. Basically, it is a musical romantic comedy that you'll want to be standing right at the front for, with your iPhone out ready to capture it for your followers. But don't. Take the time to experience it fully. It is a pristine moment of connection.
Enjoy.
★★★★
Trailer:
Begin Again screened at Sydney Film Festival 2014.
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