The art form of the musical is not one I necessarily like. The musicals that came to screen in the early through mid 20th century seem quaint and a bit goofy. I have seen very few musicals over the last 20 years with "Dreamgirls" being the most recent (oh, yes...some Bollywood stuff too). I think most musicals work better on Broadway stages than on the screen and the reason is simple. It's a serious suspension of reality when people break into song and/or dance when there is a major discovery, let down, success, failure, hot guy, hot girl.

But here’s a musical that works. There’s a believability and “normal” tone about it.

The plot is simple. Two songwriters, Guy (GLEN HANSARD) and Girl (MARKÉTA IRGLOVÁ) meet on the streets of Dublin. They discover they are kindred spirits and their relationship grows over a love of music and failed romances. Guy also works for his father (BILL HODNETT) in a vacuum repair shop. When he’s not working he performs popular covers on the streets of Dublin to make some money. At night he goes back to his apartment above his dad’s shop and writes about his ex-girlfriend.

Girl notices him and they get together and start writing and recording music. Girl is also lamenting the loss of her estranged husband who is living in the Czech Republic. Girl sells flowers on the streets of Dublin to support her daughter and her mother (DANUSE KTRESTOVA).

Hansard and Irglová do a great job as singer-songwriters and they did many of their own songs. This is the believability factor I mentioned; all without dancing. Speaking of the music, much of it was brilliant but some of the song moments went a little too long. I thought I was looking at some real people just trying to figure out their lives and make it.

I couldn’t figure out the on-again, off-again Steadicam shooting. Authenticity doesn’t need trashy language to prove itself. There was some salty language more toward the beginning but it tapered off as the movie went along. If it had continued I would have seriously questioned the writing.

The themes I saw were good: creativity, love, rejection, discovery, respect, forgiveness, restoration and reconciliation. Plus no stupid sex scenes. If you don’t like musicals you won’t like this movie. It probably won’t appeal to anybody under 20 especially if you are looking for goofy sexual things, bar fights, martial arts or tortured youth angst.