2014: Week 26: Begin Again

Begin Again

Genre: Drama, 

Main Players:  Keira Knightley, Mark Ruffalo, Adam Levine

General Gist:  A music executive down on his luck discovers a musician who is ready to leave the country after she is jilted by her pop star boyfriend.

Tiff's Take:
Oh boy.  Another movie with music.  This is becoming a common theme.  Going into this one, I didn't realize how much music was actually going to be in the movie.  If I had known I may have been less enthusiastic to go.  But I didn't and I was really looking forward to it.  

Even though Adam Levine, who is pretty darn mainstream, was in this, I wouldn't say this was a mainstream kind of movie.  I like that.  This movie was a tad on the quirky side.  Just a little.  And I like that as well.  It was based in NYC which I love.  It had interesting, unpredictable characters which is always refreshing.  I mostly love Keira Knightley in anything she's in a I like Mark Ruffalo as well.  They were both great in this.  Adam Levine was okay but honestly he didn't have a huge part so it was hard to say whether he was bad or good.  I can't say I'm a huge fan of Adam like my dear sister so he was just sort of neutral for me.  Actually, his character was on the annoying side but I think that was intentional.      

Despite all the singing (which if I'm being honest, I liked in this one), I really enjoyed the characters and the less conventional story.  It seems like the bad movie streak has finally ended.

Tiff's Rate: Friday Night


Deb's Take: 
I love movies with music.  This one was different because it wasn't a musical per se, it was more a movie, about music with music.  Totally different but perfectly conducted.  

Adam Lavine's movie debut, that in itself was enough for me.  He is quite a man, not to mention I like his music A LOT.   Ok, that being said, Adam was amazingly good in this movie.  Maybe because he is a singer/star playing one was pretty much like being himself, but he was extremely natural and never once did I feel like he was struggling to pull off the acting gig.  This was especially important because he was playing opposite Kiera, who was phenomenal.  Ok, her singing was decent, by no means was I floored, but the music fit her.   Mark Ruffalo did great as well.  Really not one person was disappointing in this movie.  The chemistry between all the characters was spot on.  

This movie had everything I love, relationships with deep meaning, conflict, heart, emotion, heartbreak, love...you get it.  I pretty much just melted into my seat and got lost in the story.  I liked that it wasn't a cookie cutter story, I loved the music, and I appreciated the emotions.  What a great film.   I will be going again!  Something I rarely do.  

Deb's Rate:  Opening Night

Preview: Travel might get in the way of both of us being able to go to the movie next week.  But you never know.  We have a way of making it work.  We shall see.