Begin Again
Director: John Carney
Talent: Mark Ruffalo, Keira Knightley, Hailee Steinfeld, Adam Levine
Release Date: 11th July 2014
An alcoholic disillusioned by a lifetime in the music industry (Mark Ruffalo) is fired from the label he started. He descends into a cycle of self-destruction, until he stumbles across a British girl (Keira Knightley) playing one of her songs to an inattentive crowd.
Mark Ruffalo could act in a pitch black room and I’d probably still be charmed, but even his skills are tested in this bland, insincere, song-fused drama. From the second an industry rebel decides to shake up the business by promoting a middle-of-the-road, female singer-songwriter, it’s all a bit hard to swallow. A cynic probably won’t make it past the half hour mark, but if you still have a Texas track on your playlist this is for you. Knightley’s epidermic style of acting grates but Begin Again is a clean, polished product thanks to John Carney’s direction and a few not-so-terrible songs. It’s overdubbed in more ways than one, but this is passable entertainment.
Words: Eoghain Meakin
