THE SWELL SEASON

Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova’s story is a lovely one. In fact, you’re likely familiar with it if you’ve seen the tender 2006 indie, ONCE (click title to read review), as it was loosely based on it. The film shows two musicians falling in love while discovering the beautiful music they make together as artists. One of the songs they wrote for the film, “Falling Slowly”, went on to win the Oscar for Best Original Song and their lives have not been the same since.
A new documentary, named for their band, THE SWELL SEASON, explores how this unexpectedly famous couple navigate their relationship, and their band, through their newfound fame. The couple are no longer together and, while the film does give a very fair and intimate insight into why that came to pass, it may not be of any interest to those of us who would rather dig our heads in the sand and pretend that their love is as special as it once was. It also may not be of much interest to those unfamiliar with the band and their history but that's almost always the case with music documentaries. Despite my personal reluctance to believe though, I cannot deny the delicacy with which their cracks are depicted here. The music is still beautiful, just that much more heartbreaking.