Song One

Female student returns from her travels to be near her brother, comatose after a car accident; to 'bridge the gap' between them, she befriends her brother's idol, a folk musician. Anne Hathaway is an intelligent young actress whose savvy self-awareness defeats her here; she seems too aware of her sad smile and her sensitive gaze--she overworks both, trying to get us to feel something. Unfortunately, neither her quietly beatific face nor her constant walking up and down city streets (the camera tracking her intently) does much to build a character. Writer-director Kate Barker-Froyland throws a pity party for this child-woman, who blushes and squirms adorably when her mother brings up the long-ago past (1992!) and stares with pretty sadness when music conjures up tucked-away bittersweet memories. It's a forlorn valentine to phoniness. *1/2 from ****

This is such a stupid movie! They have an old lady playing the lead character that should be, at least, in her twenties, she's a 38-year-old old fart! Ann Hathaway is just too damn old and wrinkly to be playing this role! She's old enough to have teenage kids, but, she's playing that role! And another thing, she seems like a wolf in heat!!! YUCK!!!!

"You know when you have a feeling that you don't want to fade away, but you don't really know how to keep it?" Franny (Hathaway) has removed herself from her family and is living her own life. When her brother is in an accident she returns home. She begins to look at his life and what he loves. Attending a concert that he was going to go to changes everything. This movie has very good music, the bad thing about that though is that that is the reason to watch. The movie itself is a little slow and generic. I really wanted to like this and tried, but when the music wasn't going on you could tell what was going to happen from line to line. I'm not saying this isn't worth seeing, but Begin Again mixed story and music together so perfectly that it just shows you need both in order to make a good movie. Overall, good music and an OK movie. I give this a B-.

I should start by adding that I found this in a dollar DVD bin and had no preconceived notions going in besides Anne hathaway starring. Her talents are completely wasted in this travesty. Seems like it wants to be Once but also contains gratuitous sex and painfully cringy dialogue. My wife and I honestly had to stop the movie before it was over. How was this made?? Glad to see reviewers and critics agree with me that this is better left forgotten.

Greetings again from the darkness. Fresh off her Oscar winning performance and infamous on screen haircut in Les Miserables, Anne Hathaway stars in this infinitely smaller film from writer/director Kate Barker-Froyland. A Sundance Film Festival entry, the movie winds through the clubs, coffee shops and second hand stores that make up the indie music scene in northern Brooklyn. Ben Rosenfield ("Boardwalk Empire") plays Henry, the kind of musician so enamored with his own folk sound that he is willing to play for pocket change in the subway tunnels. Failing to adhere to mother rule #1, Henry pays the price for not looking both ways prior to crossing a street in front of a New York cabbie. Next thing we know, he is comatose in a hospital bed. Henry's mom (Mary Steenburgen) beckons wayward daughter Franny (Anne Hathaway) home from her worldly pursuit of a Ph.d in Anthropology. When last they spoke Franny and brother Henry had one of those nasty sibling fights where angry words were spoken and no apology followed. It's been six months and now a guilt-ridden Franny sits by his hospital bed hoping for a shot at redemption. She soon discovers Henry's journal and begins re-tracing his favorite hang-outs and bands. This journey leads her to a meeting with Henry's musical idol James Forester (played by Johnny Flynn). Lacking suspense, the story leads right where one would expect – James and Franny taking a liking to each other, Franny discovers her own love for music, and the songwriting block that has burdened James slowly breaks down. The film is at its best in the musical moments. Flynn is a very talented guy as a musician (not so much as an actor), and 5 or 6 live musical acts make appearances as the story unfolds. Most of the quiet scenes between Hathaway and Flynn seem a bit awkward, but not awkward in the good way that leads to real romance. Connection and re-connection are quite common in times of tragedy, as we are at our most emotionally vulnerable state. The biggest issue here is that everything develops just as we would expect … no surprises, no twists. Even the re-connection of Franny and her mother is a sweet scene where Franny sings along to America's "I Need You". Jenny Lewis (of Rilo Kiley fame) and Jonathan Rice co-wrote the original songs used in the film, and as stated, a hand full of other bands perform their own material. For a musically based romantic drama, it does have a couple of really nice scenes, but for the most part, the drama and romance lag the music.

"Song One" is the musical equivalent of dead air. I've had problems with movies like "Once" and "Begin Again" in the past, so interested in creating ach-y musicals about wounded characters, all to the tune of whiney songs, that they never rise above predictable and dull. And yet I'm tempted to praise those after watching "Song One", a film that seems to have even less conflict, even more sullen-faced characters, and almost no energy to its straight-forward story telling. It's the kind of romance that would make a Kathryn Heigl film look like it was made by Stanley Kubrick. Anne Hathaway produced this first feature from Kate Barker-Froyland and also stars in it as Franny, a humanitarian called back to New York when her subway-musician brother's accident leaves him in a coma. During her time back, she meets her brother's hero- James Forrester (Johnny Flynn), a musician who hasn't recorded in the five years since his girlfriend left him. He needs inspiration, she needs to forgive her brother for dropping out of college to become a musician. There ya go in a nut shell. It's a plot so simplistic that Hathaway couldn't even promote the thing on "The Daily Show" last week without giggling. Notice she didn't do that with Les Miserable's Fantine (although "hahaha she loses her job, sings a song with a bunch of tears and snot on her face, then dies hahahaha" would have been hilarious). Anyway, we know where this is all going, James and Franny are nothing more than lost, wandering bores whenever they're not together, a scene where James serenades her unconscious brother is meant to be beautiful but just looks clumsy, and there are no insights, from the creative process to the grieving process, other than both work better with a sex buddy. Franny is a role that gives Hathaway nothing to do other than practice crying and giving looks of concern. Johnny Flynn is a talented musical performer but that doesn't change the fact that you forget the music, which comes courtesy of Jenny Lewis (from the indie band Rilo Kiley) and her boyfriend Johnathan Rice, almost immediately after it ends. Otherwise he's kinda glum too, unless they're together, in which case sometimes they smile. It's a romance built on almost nothing other than needing whoever is in close proximity. Showcasing some really talented performers around the city, it's too bad "Song" has to keep its proximity closest to these two.

Song One-720P

Song One-480P

source: Song One

I found Anne Hathaway a very believable grieving sister, she should be nominated for something for it, as for Johnny Flynn I think he did a great job with the sound track and with his limited acting experience did a notable job acting in this, but I believe the sound track is what moved the movie from a good movie to a really good movie. The plot was solid, the story line moved along very well and all the characters were believable, I sort of wish the ending would have ended with the two of them moving forward together, but I think the director and writer was right on doing it the way they did. Good movie, great for a Sunday rainy afternoon with your girlfriend.