Once   When asked what my favorite film of 2007 is, I immediately point to this remarkable elegy of almost transcendent grace.  Once is infused with a heart that beats through every scene and reminds me of how people can come into our lives for a short period of time and affect us profoundly, even if we never see them again.  This is a story of an unnamed Dublin street musician.  He plays pop songs on his guitar during the day for spare change, but his real talent only reveals iteself at night when he plays his own compositions for a nonexistent crowd.  A sweet immigrant flower girl listens to him sing his heart out one evening, and she recognizes in him a truth that, perhaps. .she once saw in herself.  A few days later, she takes him to the piano store where she's allowed to play for the owner, and shows her newfound acquaintance her skills on the piano.  Thus begins a fast friendship, and possibly more....when the two unite, piano and guitar, with one of the most passionate musical duets in film history.  The energy is palpable and the scene is positively electric.  Indeed, from this point on the film has become something altogether beautiful and moving.  It has a quiet, unstated power that has the unique ability to rob you of your cynicism.  There's a point where the young man is in the process of writing a song for his ex-girlfriend, fine-tuning the piece on his guitar and laptop....and the flashbacks that accompany this are brutally heartbreaking.  There's an authenticity at play which is almost impossible to capture on film. . .a testament to the magic that permeates this picture from beginning to end. Once is a musical for two kindred spirits whose love is never spoken, and whose memory will never die. Rating:  A This is the song "Falling Slowly", which I'm sure everyone is familiar with even if you haven't seen the film, thanks in no small part to VH-1 replaying it over. . and over again.

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