Begin Again

Begin Again (2014) is about two people at the bottom making an album in New York. Dan is a record producer who has been sacked; separated from his family, drinking, taken seriously by nobody. Gretta is a songwriter who came from London with her boyfriend, who left her once he became famous. They meet in a bar, and while she sings Dan assembles the entire arrangement in his head. Unable to get a studio, they decide to record the album in the city itself: on a roof, in a street, on the subway, in an alley. The background noise is not removed; it becomes part of the song. John Carney had made Once and carries the same idea: music here is not decoration but the way two people say what they cannot say. The best scene is the headphones. They walk the city listening to the same playlist through a splitter, and their entire relationship is built in that sequence, with nothing said. Keira Knightley sang her own songs. Adam Levine appears in a film for the first time, playing something close to himself. The bravest decision is the ending: the story does not deliver the romantic close you expect. It runs 104 minutes. Good for: music films, New York, and quiet drama. Less good for: the conflict is low, the pace is soft, and some characters stay thin.