Director: John Carney
Year Released: 2013
Rating: 1.0
A burned out music executive (Mark Ruffalo) has a chance encounter (!) with a songstress (Keira Knightley) - who was just cheated on by her mega-star musician boyfriend (Adam Levine) - and they agree to create an album together (he digs her sound, man). While I certainly appreciate the DIY approach to making and releasing your own music, most of this feels disingenuous and smug: Carney hit it big with Once (which I also strongly disliked) and this is a flagrant replication of that exact formula, with the thinnest of storylines in place merely to usher out its mediocre songs (in other words, it's a bad rock musical, as if that isn't an oxymoron already) ... and then pretending to be "anti-corporate" at the conclusion. Ruffalo, frantic and spastic as if on a 24-hour coke binge, is given the ignoble task of trying to hold it together, and while his energy is appreciated, every other component of the movie is less than enthusiastic (Keira's there to giggle and appear amused). Adam Levine: no more acting for you (but I do love that song "Sugar").
