3. Once (2006)
Once is another mature and realistic romance that wraps itself around a plot centred on music, but the film is a musical in only the most plausible ways, depicting an Irish busker named as "Guy" (Glen Hansard) whose chance encounter with a Czech flower seller (Markéta Irglová) appears to blossom from a mutual love of music into possibly something more. The two click immediately, and Guy teaches her one of his songs - "Falling Slowly", which won the 2007 Academy Award for Best Original Song - before explaining that his music is primarily about a long-term girlfriend who cheated on him. When Guy tries to escalate their friendship into something romantic by asking her to spend the night, she is offended, and so the two for the majority of their screen time focus on their love of writing music. Still, the lustful frisson between the two is undeniable, even if the girl recommends he try and win his old girlfriend back, before revealing to him that she has a young child, while her husband is back in the Czech Republic. However, whether she in fact loves her husband still is left somewhat up in the air, while the pair decide to record some songs professionally before Guy moves to London. The girl decides to try and make it work with her husband, who is going to come and live in Dublin, and when Guy asks her to spend the last night with him, she acquiesces before deciding to stand him up. Devastatingly, Guy is thus deprived of a goodbye, but feels optimistic about his move to London, and buys a piano to be delivered to the girl's home. The film ends with Guy calling his ex-girlfriend, apparently happy that he is coming to London, while the girl reunites with her husband. It's a heartbreaker, if only because the chemistry between the two non-actors is so strong, and director John Carney accentuates this by contrasting it with their love of music. One can't help but feel the two are settling for less when they would be better-suited together, but alas, such is life. Guy seems to have possibly gotten a girl by the end, but we can't help but think it was the wrong one.