Once
The Guy (Glen Hansard) works part-time helping his father run a small, vacuum cleaner repair business, but dreams of one day having his songs recorded. Emotionally vulnerable, he is still coming to terms with the recent departure of his girlfriend.
He sings and plays guitar on Grafton Street, a Dublin shopping district, and one day he meets the Girl (Marketa Irglova), an Eastern European immigrant flower seller who has moved to Dublin to start a new life for herself. She has a toddler and lives with her mother, and is also in the process of making crucial decisions in her personal life.
They visit a music store where she regularly plays piano. After teaching her one of his songs ("Falling Slowly"), they sing and play the song together
Over the course of an intense few days, their relationship blossoms as they share their music, create songs, and record a demo album.
He is thinking about and writing about his ex-girlfriend, who moved to London. The Girl encourages him to move there, win his girlfriend back and pursue his musical career. He soon decides that it is time to move to London, but he wants to make a high-quality demo of his songs to take with him and asks the Girl to record it with him.
Before leaving the Guy buys the Girl a present: the piano she wanted to have but couldn´t afford, then calls his ex-girlfriend, who is happy about his imminent arrival. Although their lives follow different paths, the Girl and the Guy were deeply affected by their short time together: their shared love of music causes them to flourish and grow with a new found confidence.
This Irish musical film, written and directed by John Carney, received a 2007 Academy Award for Best Original Song and the soundtrack as a whole also received a Grammy nomination.
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