Begin Again opens with hippy singers on an open-mic night in a New York City bar, each one shittier than the last until Keira Knightly reluctantly steps up. Mark Ruffalo’s character, a drunken, washed-up record exec instantly thinks he’s discovered the answer to his problems.
Yeah, it gets a little sweet at times (Ruffalo easily finds parking right in front of wherever he’s going in Manhattan), but you want to believe it. You want to believe that music can change people’s lives after their hearts break or their careers go down the toilet. The original title of the film was Can a Song Save Your Life?, a bit on the nose, but writer/director John Carney knew better.
And he made the best romantic dramedy of the summer. See it.
