Movie Review: Begin Again

I had no idea when I stumbled across Begin Again that it would turn out to be such a great, yet simple, film. Sure, it didn't have the most original of storylines, but the story had a sense of authenticity and there's a certain complexity to the characters that was pretty compelling to watch. I thought Keira Knightley was divine and Mark Ruffalo was just fantastic. Adam Levine wasn't given much to work on, but he's decent. Of course, the soundtrack was simply mesmerizing and it wonderfully sets the tone of the film. I liked the fact that the actors just did not break into song and dance numbers and there were no artificial and spectacular props as backdrops. The music were mostly performance pieces, yet it moved the story along more than most of the current crop of musicals. Quite frankly, I didn't put much faith into the movie based on its music, but I have now fallen madly in love with everything about Begin Again, and yes, the film was grounded in simplicity without being preachy and too cliched, and that's what dazzled me the most. 8