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Rarely has a musical felt quite so organic, quite so natural, quite so appropriate as Once, which was (finally) released on DVD last week and offers audiences a second shot at one of the best films of 2007 (and which might have eluded Atlanta movie-goers this past summer). Its success shouldn’t be that surprising given how pitch-perfect 2007 was when it came to musicals, movies about musicians or both. I discussed a lot of the amazing movies featuring rockers and music last month, and noted how I’d missed out on Once. After viewing the DVD, it gets even easier to make the case that 2007 is the year that movies rocked the best.

Irish director John Carney reunited with Glen Hansard, his former bandmate in the band the Frames, casting Hansard as a Dublin busker who forms a musical partnership that borders on romance with a Czech emigre (Marketa Irglova). This casting is the key to the entire film, because Hansard, despite a role in 1991’s The Commitments, is more musician than actor. Carney, as noted in the DVD’s spare extra features, wanted to shoot a small film with a smaller budget but wanted the film to develop as deliberately as possible. Hansard and Irglova are friends in real life (and apparently, post-production, are lovers), and their scenes together could not feel more real as they use music to express their respective feelings of wounded love for their lost partners and, possibly, a love for each other.

They meet on the streets of Dublin, where Guy (no proper names are given) strums and sings to solicit donations from the passing, bustling shopping-district crowd. It is there one night that Girl is not only taken with the passion behind his words but wants to know where they come from, and the two strike up an awkward conversation. Turns out she’s more than just a passer-by or a passing interest; she’s a classically trained pianist who might be able to add softer edges to his raw laments.

With every musical number delivered in realistic settings, and as a collaboration hints at deeper levels, Once quickly finds its stride. When she takes Guy to a music store to show him a piano she adores, a casual conversation turns into a lovely duet (”Falling Slowly,” which easily could have been the movie’s title), a sea of unsold drums filling in as an audience. Hansard’s soaring tenor and crunching guitar chords all but threaten to crack glass until Irglova softens the delivery with a harmony of meditative piano phrasings and her own, almost hesitant, alto vocals.

And so the music is played in Once, never hitting an inauthentic note, or setting. Lyrics are blended, bandmates are recruited, and the next thing you know, there might actually be a record that could come out of this relationship. And what else? Carney likes to leave the question more or less unanswered, but Once (as its title subtly suggests) shows what magic can happen between two people who meet at just the right moment. It could be sweet music; it could be more. But the beauty is in the meeting, and the connection.

As mentioned earlier, the DVD extras are about as spare as the film itself, with essentially one “making-of” documentary split into two segments that basically say the same thing. And that’s that familiarity and a singular vision can result in something surprising. Carney shot the movie on a shoestring budget to ensure total creative control, filming scenes from cameras mounted on cars, on ocean sides, Dublin’s gritty streets, and they all unfold at their own pace. It’s a verite style that has a wisp of French New Wave about it but with more charm.

As wondrous and bombastic as other musical films were in 2007 —  I’m Not There and Across the Universe come to mind — it’s the simplicity of films like Once and Control that can turn heads with what feels like half the effort. Would that more films featured music that unfolds with the ease of a chance encounter that promises so much more.

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