Can a Song Save Your Life? The Weinstein Company doesn't think so, since they've changed the title of that music industry Mark Ruffalo/Keira Knightley film. It would like to be known as Begin Again before it actually faces the fickle public. Presumably due to the widespread industry belief (it's not just TWC) that the more generic the title, the more likely it is to appeal to multiple quadrants. Why anyone interested in a dramedy about the music industry would object to the earlier title who can say without degrees in P&A?
Yes No Maybe So breakdown after the jump
YES
- Starting with shots of Mark Ruffalo all hairy and bedhead cute is not in any way a deterrent
- From the director of Once. Yes, please (not that Zonad was any good but you can't win them all)
- The word "cute" might come up a lot in the clips sampled here but there's room for those movies, too. Or at least there should be.
- Even if all the music is diegetic it's still a musical if people are constantly singing so "yes"
- Keira Knightley, Mark Ruffalo, Cee-Lo and James Corden - sure!
- Is Hailee Steinfeld playing Ruffalo's daughter here because that seems like exceptionally good if unexpected familial casting
- Love the idea of an album where each song is recorded organically and in a different location without studio expense. Too many records are over-produced. Literally while I was typing that sentence I just flashed back to Björk's "There's More To Life Than This" and yeah yeah yeah I'm sure there are more contemporary examples than a 21 year old song but I cannot tell you how thrilling I found that moment in the song where she suddenly moves into a different room and you can hear the sound change. The first time I heard that record it was goosebumps and still is.
NO
- Listen. There are a lot of talented graphic artists in the world and a lot of Photoshop experts so why is it that every movie, be it within advertisements like posters or within the actual movie when you see photographs of the cast before the movie took place or interior logic stuff like magazine covers looks cheap and rushed amateur work? It's also worth noting that Mark Ruffalo and Mos Def are both BEING PAID TO ACT IN THIS MOVIE so, Jesus, just make them do a photoshoot on set with a professional celebrity photographer and use that for the fake magazine cover and various advertisements and kill all the birds with one stone. Ugh (times every time - it's not just this movie)
- It's hard to come up with "no"s here but the film looks utterly innocuous. Like the kind of movie you might forget you even saw by the time you've digested your popcorn
MAYBE SO
- The Cast: The jury is still out on Hailee Steinfeld (no, I didn't think she was nomination-worthy in True Grit (merely fine) and I've heard she was terrible in Romeo and Juliet; I don't know how to say this without sounding disloyal but Catherine Keener has been so boring lately onscreen and she used to be such a blast; I don't know how to say this without sounding disloyal but Mark Ruffalo's gift seems to be coarsening as of late - he was way over the top in Infinitely Polar Bear (reviewed at Sundance) and looks like he might be in that mode again; Adam Levine and other music industry professionals because stunt casting can result in really uneven performances
- Is the music good? Because if it's not better than okay that will be a problem.
- Does Keira do her own singing? (If so disregard this bullet point). Her voice seems to change a lot from speaking to singing and I'm not okay with people not doing their own singing!
The Trailer Itself...
Are you a Yes, No or Maybe So?