Song One (2014)

Great Film overall

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Estranged from her mother and brother after a trifling argument, PhD student Franny is photographing nomads in Morocco when she gets a message her street musician sibling Henry has been left in a coma after being hit by a taxi in NYC. She returns to the US to sit regretfully by his hospital bed, thinking up ways to rouse him from his oblivion. She soon discovers he admired another folk singer called James, and engineers a meeting with the young fellow at one of his gigs. The next day Franny is joined at Henry's bedside by this sensitive balladeer, and the relationship soon develops a lukewarm romantic element. Unfortunately there's nothing remarkable about this unambitious project - the acting of the two leads is adequate, but the narrative arc of these characters doesn't possess sufficient vitality to make the film memorable in any way. There are no surprises, mysteries or dramatic moments as the gelatinous flow of this lightweight tale is broken up at regular intervals by some forgettable songs. 'Song One' provides little more than a slow-moving, low-key experience until it eventually arrives at a predictable conclusion.

Franny Ellis (Anne Hathaway) is in Morocco working on her anthropology PhD thesis. She returns home to NYC after her mother (Mary Steenburgen) informs her that her brother Henry is in a coma after getting hit by a car. He's an aspiring musician which she had argued against. She contacts his favorite musician James Forester (Johnny Flynn) to show him some of Henry's work. They develop a relationship.Hathaway is doing good work. The story is dripping in sincerity but it doesn't have any intensity. The drama is kept at a very low key. There is simply nothing new or exciting. The story is so thin that it threatens to blow away.

This movie tugs at all the right strings without straying too far from reality. You get to experience a relationship beginning while at the same time, experiencing the struggle and efforts of a family going through a tragedy that has an uncertain outcome. The only true disappointment I experienced while watching this movie, was not being able to come out on the other side feeling completely satisfied. For me personally, there are too few movies these days that give you a truly good feeling about where things end up. I feel that you could have taken a movie like this and still included details about Henry waking up and leaving us with a more stable vision of how his sister and James' relationship forges on. Meh! My two cents.

How do you spell "Relief"? S-o-n-g-O-n-e! Finally... a movie that knows how to be refreshingly real and not afraid to use it. Life is fragile. I don't know of anyone who hasn't experienced an event that changed their world in an instant. The movie's characters and story drew me in from beginning to end. What's not to love about Anne Hathaway as she struggles to let go and understand her brother's world rather than that of strangers in faraway places? As Franny re-discovers her own love and appreciation for the talent, passion and struggles of musicians, so do I! Johnny Flynn? A truly amazing performance as a sensitive, sometimes awkward and insecure artist whose voice and poetry speaks from his heart to all who listen. Song One is a movie that will not be forgotten by it's viewers. Unless you are an unfortunate soul in a coma, your senses will be heightened as well as your sensitivity and connection to the realities of life.