When The Muses Beckon-With Keira Knightley And Mark Ruffalo’s Begin Again In Mind

DVD Review

By Sam Lowell

Begin Again, starring Keira Knightley, Mark Ruffalo, 2013    

 

No question, as I am personally very well aware of, trying to break into the record business (I know, I know records, vinyl, although making a come-back of sorts are so, well, yesterday) is a hard dollar, a very hard dollar. As it turns out after a look see at this film under review, Begin Again, not only breaking into the record industry as a singer-song-writer is difficult but being an “idea” guy is too. Staying on top might just be harder for a guy who can spot the “next big thing,” the next big sound, the next million plus seller to keep the coffers of the record company filled. Those two themes are at the heart of this movie about the big breaks and bad falls inherent in such an unstable industry based on catering such an esoteric subject as musical tastes-and surviving. Of course this one is latched together with plenty of wry comedy and pathos but the main point in well taken. Luck is good, luck is probably necessary, you know being in the right place at the right time, for example sitting in some coffeehouse in the Village in 1960 just as the vaunted “folk minute” crept up an bit the young before settling back into its now greying demographic niche. But you better have that idea, that sound “wired” that new thing whatever luck you may have or you are cooked.     

Here is how this one played out. Dan, played by Mark Ruffalo, a guy who built the record company he was at by being the big idea guy, being on top of what people, some segment of people anyway, wanted to hear by “hearing” something in his head had been for lots of reason including the break-up of his family life and serious drug and alcohol dependency having a rather long dry spell between “hits” of talent-spotting. Got canned for that, got canned from his own creation once the bottom line trumped creative genius, and other reasons.

So Dan was like a lot of guys and gals who are in such a situation desperate to break out, to find that next best thing-again. One night he was in a bar drinking, heavily drinking to be kind, during an “open mic” when he heard this female singer, hears this lovely English young woman, Gretta, played by Kiera Knightley, playing this mournful tune that the audience was going to sleep over. But to Dan this voice and basic was to be  his next big thing, his comeback trail all a-blazing. His ticket back to the top. (Frankly hearing both the “open mic” version of the song Gretta played on stage and the one Dan “heard” in his head left me dry but maybe I am still too attached to the rock, folk rock, rock and roll of my youth to catch what today ‘s youthful ears might groove on.)     

Problem: Kara was getting ready to blow town after a painful and difficult break-up with her lover-musical partner Don, played by The Voice’s Adam Levine, an up and coming singer, who had blown town for the Coast the with some honey from his record company. Had let some success go to his head, had gone “commercial”, meaning over-produced material, meaning elevator “musak” down the road. So Dan got a “No sale.” Well not “no sale” really once our boy Dan went to work on his concept, his no money, since he had none, big idea concept for her. She bit, bit big time once she got herself committed to the concept, the idea of producing a demo au natural, using New York City and its sounds as backdrop to her songs.

Along the way we get a glimpse at why Dan had been a king hell idea guy. But we also see why his family life busted up and why Gretta was still busted up about her relationship with Don. Although in the end Dan got back with his family and Gretta, gave Don the air after he “flunked” her test about doing her song in a folksy way not the over-produced fluff the record company had talked him into.

You probably won’t get many suggestions about how to break into the music business (if you don’t make it on The Voice, let’s say) from this one but I would point out to you the fate of the guy, the English guy, who befriended Kara when Adam broke up with her, a guy who spent his life singing on lonely street corners near the subway entrances in New York City. That unfortunately is the fate of many very talented, and not so talented, musicians who don’t get on somebody in the industry’s radar. Nice in the end “feel good” film though.