The director of Once tried to make lightning strike twice and...it didn't. Begin Again is nice, light romantic comedy fare, with a love of music thrown in, but it's unevenness and Amelie-esque perkiness prevent it from becoming any more. Mark Ruffalo gives a very full and sincere performance, to the point of matching the desperation of his character, but Keira Knightley's constant smiling belies her character's supposed equal level of drama and the result is a mis-match of acting styles that leaves the audience off-balance as to how to even interpret many scenes.
The movie itself revisits old themes done better in A League of Their Own and Bad News Bears to name to sport motifed films. It's a nice ode to New York as we follow another failed singer songwriter through her final attempt at success after hooking up with a drunken, washed up music executive. There is a humorous cameo by Cee Lo Greene, but I'm sure this film was meant to make the audience recognize the acting skills of Maroon 5 lead singer, Adam Levine in one of the lead roles. His character serves as a fairly good caricature of his own industry and pop idol status, but he ultimately takes himself a bit too seriously. The ubiquitous Hailee Steinfeld shows up in a small repeat performance of her recent Kevin Costner movie (3 Days to Kill) turn as a mildly rebellious teen, but I always like to see her and she learned to play guitar for one of the best scenes of the movie. Catherine Keener is woefully underused...again. When will she get her breakthrough lead role!?
I'd like to talk about the elephant in the room on the screen - hair. It's a recurring theme throughout the movie, though I believe unintentionally. Mark Ruffalo's character has let himself go and the main way they express this is through showing lots of his body hair gone awry, from that on his head, to chest, legs and on and on. Then there's Adam Levine's hair, which undergoes many changes throughout the film, most pointedly when he grows a much-maligned mega-beard. Now to Keira. She is supposed to be understated and constantly downplaying her own natural good looks, but she is in the exact same messy ponytail throughout the film, even when she goes to see her ex-boyfriend for the first time and when she goes out to see his show. Not. Believable. Female. Behavior.
My 11 year old daughter enjoyed this film (mostly because she's a huge Hulk fan) but I couldn't muster anymore than "good" to describe my feelings about it and even then, with a lilt in my voice. The generally enjoyable music is what saves it from falling below a "3".
3 out of 5 stars
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