Probably one of the more viewed movies of my series is Once. Its the debut and final movie of lead singer of Irish rock band The Frames, Glen Hansard and Czech singer Markéta Irglová.

It’s literally a guy-meets-girl, guy-falls-in-love-with-girl, bittersweet love story. Hansard is an unnamed character titled “Guy,” a Hoover vacuum cleaner fixer and street singer.

Irglová is “Girl,” an estranged wife stuck in Dublin with her mother and child. She hands out roses for money and plays piano at a local music store.

“Guy” befriends “Girl” after fixing her vacuum cleaner (very romantic, indeed) and they hit it off after she hears some of his songs and duets endue.

Once plays much stranger than other indie films of the ‘aughts. It’s part pseudo-love story and part musical. But the musical parts aren’t all Mamma Mia!, they’re just people getting together and singing music. Which leads to the film’s downfall or greatness, a lion’s share of the movie is music.

So the viewer’s opinion of the music will separate those who think it’s an excellent film (me) and others.

Admittedly, it took me two viewings to actually appreciate the movie. The first one, it felt slow and just kind of okay. The second, after listening to the soundtrack about 25 times, was much more touching. For being first-time actors, Hansard and Irglová work and their chemistry covers up the times that they don’t. But, really, the music is the star and deservedly won an Oscar because of it.

Why did it fail? Technically, it didn’t. It cost a measly $150,000 to make and made $9 million in the States alone. But why you’ve probably only heard about it in passing is because it was released in Summer 2007, then shuffled around to indie theaters in the Fall until its DVD release. Even at its peak, it was only in 150 theaters in the U.S.

Is it good? If you love the music, you’ll love this. If not, still give it a try. For being so melancholy, it’s an incredibly romantic, and more importantly, realistic film about those once-in-a-lifetime meetings.