Beastly Reviews: Begin Again
A soft love song to New York that never quite hits the right notes.
I’m Alexander Cheves, and this is LOVE, BEASTLY—a blog about sex, feelings, and manhood. It’s written mostly for men—gay, straight, bi, MSM, or just curious—but some readers are women, and some don’t fit into categories. Everyone’s welcome here.
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After my last film, I needed a palate cleanser. I found that in Begin Again, a sweet, mild indie darling about two people in the Big Apple who are struggling: songwriter Gretta (Keira Knightley) and music producer Dan (Mark Ruffalo).
Dan has just been fired, and Gretta is freshly wounded by her asshole rockstar boyfriend (Adam Levine in his film debut). In love, they’re both not doing well. Dan has a crumbling relationship with his ex-wife and has recently been ousted from the record label he founded. His character profile is slimy, but Ruffalo is not, which creates a somewhat mismatched effect. But Ruffalo delivers a sincere, humane version of the urban con artist—a down-on-his-luck bohemian who's out of ideas.
He just needs a friend—and finds one. Stumbling into an East Village bar one night, Dan finds Gretta at the mic. She’s bared, fragile, soft-voiced, singing about heartbreak. In the role, Keira Knightley is chic and charming, but not convincingly a standout singer. Her thin voice works for airy bops without ever quite convincing us she'd be an overnight hit in a city filled with singers.
Dan wants to sign her to his label. She says no. After some convincing, she agrees, but only on her terms (because a first-time artist can do that). Together, they create an album showcasing the sounds of New York City (the reason why she wants to do it this way is never explained). They record live on the streets, in Central Park, and elsewhere. It's cute, and some songs are catchy, but the end result is less of a romantic drama and more of a making-of music documentary about an album that doesn't exist.
I also have a hard time believing people in New York are this genteel, this chipper at hearing a band playing outside their bedrooms. I understand the film's romantic pitch: two wayfaring nobodies trying to find themselves and arriving at a deeper understanding of life. I'm just not sure that's enough to hang a film on. And are New Yorkers really this nice? Everyone seems to clap along whenever and wherever Gretta and the gang set up the mic and start to play. Where are the cops?
There's a delightful montage where Gretta and Dan share earpieces and walk around Times Square listening to Frank Sinatra's "Luck Be A Lady", and at this point, I realised the film is trying to be nothing more or less than a love song to New York—the city of second chances—and that’s fine. Still, I wish I had been made aware of this fact at the beginning. The plot and characters are secondary to this overall effort; the film is a snapshot, a glimpse of New York City, and Gretta and Dan are its straw men—puppets who exist just to draw our attention to the city and convey its coolness.
Over the course of the film, Dan and Gretta's personal stories lose their impact and relevance. Their narratives come to a semblance of resolution, and they become friends. And then I yawn.
Many films have attempted to be love songs to New York: 2008's New York, I Love You, 1989's New York Stories, and the best, the 1998 documentary The Cruise. In comparison, Begin Again feels a bit too precious and unsure of itself. The film makes the city look pretty and clean, as gentle and breathy as Gretta’s songs, and I just don’t believe this version of post-9/11 Manhattan. Everyone acts happy to see a band playing in the streets as if it's uncommon for musicians to appear on the sidewalk—and, unbelievably, no one shouts from a window for them to shut up.
Where's the stink? What are the stakes? In a film devoid of tension, I feel like I’ve merely been a tourist in a place that feels wholly unreal. This New York never packs a punch, never hurts. Good art should inspire hate or love—people should say it's the best thing or the worst. The only way for art to fail is if it just inspires a shrug. And Begin Again, for all its cuteness, is a shrug. It’s fine.
The ending leaves us waiting for some drama that never happens—that indeed never was present. The film never asks too much of us and ends as softly as it came.
Love, Beastly