Wearing it's heart on it's sleeve, Carney's Begin Again doesn't quite excell, but its sincerity and charm do become annoyingly infectious.
An early scene featuring the imagination and passion that surrounds music, is a wonderful sight to behold and there are moments like these scattered throughout the movies like pearls. These moments fill the film with its sincerity and charms, they come off as a love letter to music that many can relate to. It's a bit of a shame that not all the music performed has enough originality to make them distinct form each other, but there are some songs that stick out and fit the film well.
The story also fluctuates in terms of quality, at times there's an earnest story to be told, but for the majority the film just seems to plod along and becomes to wrapped up in its sappy story. Although never bad or boring, there are times when it seems like the story's on autopilot, but its still engaging and watchable.
The characters also seem to fluctuate in terms of quality with some beginning as a resemblance of cliches (Mark Ruffalo) and some are just not given enough screen time to emit enough personality (the very talented James Corden). But luckily for the film the actors do enough to imbue to characters with all charm and likability that they need. Despite the main relationship between Ruffalo and Knightly, the rest seem a bit flat and unrealistic and takes away from the emotional edge of the film.
Overall, Begin Again is a bit rough around the edges, but its heart is in the right place and that's what matters. At times the film just emits pure charm, but then also seems to then plod to the end and hits some flat notes on the way there.
Rating: 6.5/10
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