Very well executed

Simply Perfect

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The world fell in love with musicians Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova when their tiny indie romance film "Once" became a world wide hit. That adulation was fed further when they won the Oscar for best song – and gave endearing thank you speeches. And the icing on the cake was when we all learned this lovable and appealing duo were now a real life couple, not just a movie one."The Swell Season" follows their 2 year American tour after winning the Oscar. Shot in lovely black and white it captures fragments of terrific musical performances, snippets of life on the road, and pieces of the difficult and choppy real-life waters this seemingly fairy-tale couple went through. The weight of career, fame and – perhaps most importantly – the much younger Ms. Irglova's need to start to be her own person with her own way of seeing and reacting to the world all puts their relationship to a severe test.At the same time, the film gives us a lot of Mr. Hansard's back-story in some amazing scenes where he talks with his alternately funny and creepily fame obsessed mother, and heartbreaking alcoholic ex-boxer father.All these elements are always interesting and often arresting. But for me the film is good, but not quite great, because each of these elements feels just a little incomplete, a little cut short, a little cheated.Their music and performances are terrific, but songs are never allowed to be finished; often we get just a verse and a chorus before cutting away. The 'life-on-the-road elements are so brief they end up feeling familiar from other docs about musicians.The character study element is very strong, but both one sided (we learn far, far less about Ms. Irglova than Mr. Hansard), and frustrating when we get highlights and striking moments instead of depth.And the strongest part of the film – a very intimate look at the battle of a complex relationship to thrive (or even survive) as the people evolve, and the pressures on them grow suffers from having the process and role of time jumped over.Any one of these threads could have been a terrific film. I could easily have been thrilled by a simple, wonderfully short concert film, or a portrait of what drives an artist, or the study of a rich and sad relationship being rocked to it's core. But all three, plus an 'on the road' music doc sharing 88 minutes mean each of these worlds only get - at best - 20 minutes each – just not enough to get nearly as far into any one story element as I would have liked.Still very worth seeing, especially if you liked 'Once' (without that you might feel a bit lost about just who these people ARE). There are great and indelible moments. I just wish the whole wasn't somehow a little lesser than the sum of it's parts.

Swell Season is a sensitive portrayal of the romantic and musical journey of two incredibly talented musicians. It is beautifully shot and I was emotionally engaged from beginning to end. I found myself deeply moved by the gradual disintegration of a relationship that spawned such beautiful harmony on stage. In our celebrity driven culture it is refreshing to see an honest portrayal of the costs of fame without pretension. For example, I was glad the academy award scenes were not over done. So many music documentaries only present idol worshiping fans and grandiose portrayals of the subjects as god/s. I found Swell Season to be a deeply truthful inquiry in this regard and in my opinion, this documentary has raised the bar for those that follow!

There's no doubt about the fact that the film is beautiful. It feels like it's set in a never-ending autumn and moves with the quiet grace that the two stars embody. However...A previous reviewer mentioned that information seems to be missing, and I totally agree. There is much talk about the duo's Oscar win, and at one point Mar discusses how the two met, but there is no information on what happened in between so therefore I have no idea how "Once" came about.The stuff that makes it on screen is lovely and effective. I just wish I'd gotten a bit more information.

The film nominally covers the duo's tour across the world and the US after the Oscarwin during which we watch how the pair falls in and out of love.The film was shot in a moody black and white that looks great. The music is wonderful. The film itself is okay.The trouble is it's clear that not everything that happened during the time frame covered by the film was recorded. There are time periods where there was no coverage and we have to go on references (there seems to be vast passage of time where Glen's dad dies, but we don't have any sense of it). It's also plain to see that Marketa Irglova didn't really want to be on camera so at times the film comes off as the Glen Hansard show.It's not uninteresting but if you are a fan of the pair odds are you won't have any surprises. I liked the music but felt there was no point to it since there is nothing really new here.The film is worth a look if you like the pair, but I would wait cable or Netflix. On the other hand the final number before the end credits of Glenn playing Say it to Me Now at Radio City Music Hall is almost a good enough reason on it's own to see this on a big screen (It's one of those this is why I go to the movie moments we get so rarely these days).