The Swell Season

This is not just another concert tour movie (although fans will find plenty to satisfy), but a many layered film about sudden notoriety, artistic passion and how the protagonists (Glen and Marketa , already known to us from the film Once and their music) handle it all. The Swell Season takes a unique approach to the music doc category, turning it around so that it feels like fiction, unfolding a narrative that traces the arc of a relationship. Often it offers glimpses (as in scenes with glen's parents] at what makes these two, glen especially, tick. The concert footage mostly avoids the long view of the stage and pans of the audience; instead, it stays inside the band, up close and personal. Last, but definitely not least, it is beautifully shot in burnished black and white.

First, full disclosure. I am friends with two of the filmmakers--Chris Dapkins and Carlo Mirabella-Davis--and their parents. In fact, Chris Dapkins grew up a mile and a half down the road, which in our part of rural upstate New York made us the equivalent of next-door neighbors.

So I was prepared to like The Swell Season. But to be stunned by it?

Though I am no longer a fan of pop music, I sat absolutely riveted through every frame of this extraordinary story of two performers on tour in public and private. The choice of black and white photography was just right, and the filmmakers let their narrative unfold in a straightforward fashion without adornment or visual gimmicks.

I loved the music by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, and ached at the sad poignancy of their gradual breakup. Their doomed romance took me back to that brief but legendary love affair between Joan Baez and Bob Dylan in those younger days in the 1960s when I cared deeply about such public matters of the heart.

Ron Bailey, author and retired journalist

There's no doubt about the fact that the film is beautiful. It feels like it's set in a never-ending autumn and moves with the quiet grace that the two stars embody. However...

A previous reviewer mentioned that information seems to be missing, and I totally agree. There is much talk about the duo's Oscar win, and at one point Mar discusses how the two met, but there is no information on what happened in between so therefore I have no idea how "Once" came about.

The stuff that makes it on screen is lovely and effective. I just wish I'd gotten a bit more information.

This is a black and white documentary about Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová's world wind tour after the Oscars for "Once". I have to admit that "Once" is one of my favorite movies. And in this film, we're given a backstage pass into their lives. Only there's something wrong. It's not the perfunctory concert movie. There seems to be a distance in the much described love affair between the couple.

The first half goes on without much tension. It's a rather slow movie. But then we start to see some of the problems emerging. There are some insights into the pressure and tension building inside the relationship. It's not a happy watch by all means, and everybody should be aware of it.

The world fell in love with musicians Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova when their tiny indie romance film "Once" became a world wide hit. That adulation was fed further when they won the Oscar for best song – and gave endearing thank you speeches. And the icing on the cake was when we all learned this lovable and appealing duo were now a real life couple, not just a movie one.

"The Swell Season" follows their 2 year American tour after winning the Oscar. Shot in lovely black and white it captures fragments of terrific musical performances, snippets of life on the road, and pieces of the difficult and choppy real-life waters this seemingly fairy-tale couple went through. The weight of career, fame and – perhaps most importantly – the much younger Ms. Irglova's need to start to be her own person with her own way of seeing and reacting to the world all puts their relationship to a severe test.

At the same time, the film gives us a lot of Mr. Hansard's back-story in some amazing scenes where he talks with his alternately funny and creepily fame obsessed mother, and heartbreaking alcoholic ex-boxer father.

All these elements are always interesting and often arresting. But for me the film is good, but not quite great, because each of these elements feels just a little incomplete, a little cut short, a little cheated.

Their music and performances are terrific, but songs are never allowed to be finished; often we get just a verse and a chorus before cutting away. The 'life-on-the-road elements are so brief they end up feeling familiar from other docs about musicians.

The character study element is very strong, but both one sided (we learn far, far less about Ms. Irglova than Mr. Hansard), and frustrating when we get highlights and striking moments instead of depth.

And the strongest part of the film – a very intimate look at the battle of a complex relationship to thrive (or even survive) as the people evolve, and the pressures on them grow suffers from having the process and role of time jumped over.

Any one of these threads could have been a terrific film. I could easily have been thrilled by a simple, wonderfully short concert film, or a portrait of what drives an artist, or the study of a rich and sad relationship being rocked to it's core. But all three, plus an 'on the road' music doc sharing 88 minutes mean each of these worlds only get - at best - 20 minutes each – just not enough to get nearly as far into any one story element as I would have liked.

Still very worth seeing, especially if you liked 'Once' (without that you might feel a bit lost about just who these people ARE). There are great and indelible moments. I just wish the whole wasn't somehow a little lesser than the sum of it's parts.