The After-Echoes of Enchantment and Enigma of Once
When Once was released in 2007, there was certainly no guess that this low budget, small Irish movie would be able to reach people from all around the world. It was not an attention seeking type of movie and that was the best thing about it. There were not huge marketing campaigns, top tier influenced A-list celebrities, or enormous, extravagant, and over the top sets. Just two musicians with a couple of songs and a real, emotional, and alive Dublin setting backdrop. The unadorned, unembellished approach was, in fact, the greatest strength of Once.
Once unfolds in an unexpected, unhurried manner, much like a delicate, lyrical refrain. Glen Hansard stars as a moniker-less street musician, “Guy,” who plays his heart out on Grafton street and “busks.” He sings of love and heartache. Then, one “clauses his copuler” acts as a flower and gives him his “masculine” “i” “mio” cuunac.
They begin collaborating on song writing and recording — fragile, raw, and honest pieces that seem to document their evolving emotional connection. Yet, unlike a typical Hollywood romance, Once does not offer a facile resolution. The two slip into something between love and friendship — a silent bond, unarticulated and suspended in potential. She stays in Dublin to be with her family and he leaves for London to pursue his musical ambitions. Their final song, “Falling Slowly,” encapsulates the bittersweet in-between: a deeply felt love that can never be fully attained.
The film’s beauty lies in its restraint. John Carney, the director, who used to be a musician and a bassist for Hansard’s band The Frames, captures almost documentary-like scenes. The dialogue stumbles with a naturalness, the music just erupts. It’s about rhythm more than a sequence of events, the way two souls manage to find a form of harmony amidst the chaos of a world that is indifferent and noisy.
Fans and Theories: Did They Ever Meet Again?
Once captivated audiences to such an extent that, following the film’s conclusion, patrons were eager to question what followed? Is it true that the Guy’s career takes off in London? Does the Girl ever listen to the CD that was left to her? and Is it true that they reunite after years?
After the film’s hauntingly open conclusion, forums and blogs were inundated with fan theories. Some viewers posed a tragic twist, envisioning the couple’s fleeting interaction as something inevitably destined to remain locked in that week in Dublin. Others composed optimistic extensions in which the Girl entered a London recording studio years later, only to find him there, still singing the same song.
The most frequently mentioned theory was associated with the clues contained in the song “Falling Slowly.” The phrase “Take this sinking boat and point it home” was interpreted as a metaphor describing the Girl’s journey to find a place where, not with Guy, she would discover her true self. It changed the narrative in which it was more of a romance and less of a story of emotional awakening, showing how briefly two people can meet and still alter the course of each other’s lives forever.
Director John Carney was also quite coy when I asked him about what he intended with the ending. “It’s meant to leave you with a feeling,” he communicated to The Irish Times. “Once the credits roll, the rest belongs to the audience.” Glen Hansard, however, did say in a 2008 interview that he, too, liked to believe the characters eventually did reunite. “I think they’d write another song together — maybe that’s how they’d find each other,” he said.
The Real-Life Chemistry That Changed Everything
The emotional authenticity with which Once was filmed was also a consequence of the real bond that Hansard and Irglová shared, a bond that went beyond what was portrayed on the screen. When filming was taking place, Hansard was in his late thirties and Irglová was only 17. However, the two of them did share a love for music. They did have a brief romantic relationship which, like the film, was characterized by a soft and dreamy intimacy. Irglová and Hansard’s relationship grew as their music gained worldwide fame.
Their chemistry was not something that was practiced. In fact, Hansard noted that most of their scenes were recorded with little prompting — Carney suggested that they just “be themselves.” The instance when Girl sings “If You Want Me” in her small apartment was filmed in one take, with the only available light in the room coming from the set and the muted light of a Dublin evening through the window. The absence of elaborate staging, polish, and perfection was, in fact, one of the film’s most important qualities.
A Budget So Small It Was Almost a Miracle
Once was made for a little under $150, 000 – a price that is roughly equivalent to the catering budget of a Hollywood rom-com. Most of that money was self-funded by Carney and Hansard, who borrowed equipment and filmed guerilla-style on the streets of Dublin. Many scenes were filmed without permits, in natural crowds with improvised dramatic interactions.
Markéta Irglová reminisced about how their crew was so small they could all fit inside a van. “We were just friends making something we loved,” she said. “It never felt like work.”
Filming the studio scenes in Dublin was also a stroke of luck, since it was a studio where Hansard recorded with his band. That genuineness seeped into the storytelling. When Guy records his songs, those performances were recorded in real-time unlike in most films.
It was a low-budget gamble that, ironically, paid off beautifully. Once grossed over $20 million and won the Oscar for Best Original Song in 2008. For a film that was struggling to find distribution, it had one of the most surprising Oscar stories of the decade.
Once quickly turned into a cultural milestone. Looking back, many fans claimed to find connections in the film that were never intended. Some fans claimed the Girl was a figurative meaning and muse of Hansard, and the story was meant to represent the artistic process.
Dublin was also interpreted as the “third character.” The rain-slicked streets, the quiet cafés, and the small recording room became figures of emotional confinement, suggesting the city was, like the characters, learning to breathe again after years of hardship.
Fans noticed the song “When Your Mind’s Made Up” perfectly paralleled the Girl’s decision not to follow Guy. It’s as if their duet foreshadowed the moment she would choose stability over romance, art over chaos. That subtle storytelling, built through lyrics rather than dialogue, kept fans dissecting the soundtrack long after the film concluded.
The real-life success of Once beautifully blurred the line between fiction and reality. Hansard and Irglová globally toured as The Swell Season, performing the very songs their characters had written. For many fans the concerts, and the songs, felt like continuations of the movie, as if Guy and Girl had stepped off the screen to share their music in the real world.
Nevertheless, the pressure of public scrutiny took its toll on their off-screen relationship, which eventually ended. Still, they performed together for some time after their romance had concluded. Irglová later described the romance as a portion of the film Once, explaining, “It was beautiful, it was fleeting, and it gave us music.”
Alternate Endings and What Could Have Been.
Interestingly, early drafts of Once reportedly had a slightly different ending. In one version, months after Guy left for Dublin, he returned to find Girl had moved on—married, settled, but still playing his CD. Carney eventually scrapped the idea, believing an ambiguous ending to be more “true to life.”
Another alternate ending circulated in the crew as a rumor. Guy was to send a song from London, which would play over the final montage, connecting them through sound. That idea, which was never filmed, later inspired the stage adaptation of the film which premiered years later. In that version, the music became the emotional bridge.
What Time Can’t Fade.
Even today, Once still attracts more and more fans, especially those who find beauty in imperfection. It stands, more than anything, as a reminder that powerful storytelling doesn’t need the spectacle. Sometimes, all it takes is a song and a story to be embraced.
Theories surrounding the text change with time — the question of whether they met again, and the idea that the songs mean more than they say — but the essence of Once remains timeless. It’s about that one transient connection that alters your perception of the world. And, as Hansard once told a fan after a concert, “Maybe they didn’t end up together. But maybe they didn’t have to. Sometimes love is just the song you leave behind.”