Movie Review: Begin Again

Photo from: Begin Again Facebook page

Star Rating 4/5: ★★★★

I saw the film, Begin Again on Friday, which is written and directed by John Carney and stars Keira Knightley, Mark Ruffalo, Adam Levine, Hailee Steinfeld and Catherine Keener. I really enjoyed the movie because it was much better than I was anticipating. It is a comedy/drama about Dan Mulligan [Mark Ruffalo] a record producer, who is struggling both at work and with his personal life. He gets a second chance when he comes across British singer and song-writer, Gretta [Keira Knightley] singing in a New York bar and offers to produce an album with her. After much persuasion Gretta agrees and life in New York City starts looking up for Gretta too, after her messy break up with her musician boyfriend, David Kohl [Adam Levine].

I'm a bit of a music buff so that's what drew me to see the film in the first place and I also love Mark Ruffalo. I haven't seen him in anything in a while so it was nice. One thing that really surprised me about the movie is that Keira Knightley can sing and she's actually really good! The film is about music and a record producer so I expected a lot of music to be used in the film and for it to be important to the story and it is. The music suits the film really well because a lot of it is music sung by Keira Knightley, especially for the movie. I personally thoroughly enjoyed the music in the film and Adam Levine from Maroon 5 singing in the movie every so often is an added bonus for me, since I'm a Maroon 5 fan. The music in the film definitely does the movie justice and it is used in exactly the right way. 

The movie kind of sticks it to record company executives and how they sometimes exploit their artists because in one scene Gretta is negotiating with the record company bosses about how much profit the record label will get from her album. I haven't seen any movies with both Keira Knightley and Mark Ruffalo in it before but I thought they worked well together and their characters had a believable connection.

The storyline is very meaningful and has a certain sweetness to it because it has a good message about second chances. Without giving too much away, Gretta and Dan both manage to turn over a new leaf in their lives. Overall, Begin Again is a really great movie with a mix of comedy, drama and music all rolled into one. If you like movies with a great soundtrack then you will love this film because in some scenes I was actually tapping my toes to the music and if you like films about music you will enjoy it too. The movie really exceeded my expectations. I honestly thought it would be a mediocre film but it was really entertaining, funny and sweet.

If any of you have seen the film as well I'd love to know what you thought of it to so please feel free to leave your comments in the comment box below!

                                           Begin Again official trailer courtesy of The Weinstein Company