'Begin Again' a charming and welcome change of pace

On a weekend that saw the launch of heavily marketed, star-power movies like “Hercules” and “Lucy,” the charming and unassuming “Begin Again” is a welcome change of pace.

Written and directed by Ireland-native John Carney (“Once”), the indie film “Begin Again” is the chance New York City encounter between a suddenly out-of-work, alcoholic music-business executive (Mark Ruffalo) and a young, heart-broken singer-songwriter (Kiera Knightly) that develops into a promising partnership.

Just as he delivered with “Once” in 2007, Carney scores here with great music and an unusual love story that offers many twists and turns. In fact, if it were not for strong turns by Ruffalo, Knightly and Adam Levine (more on him later), the music alone would be worth the price of admission.

(Bonus moment: You can listen to the entire movie soundtrack of originals music for free on YouTube, including songs by Levine, Knightly and Cee Lo Green.)

Carney takes the time to set the stage for his audience through some unusual flashbacks, revealing how each of his stars came to be together in a NYC club at the right moment in time.

Knightly is there with a guitar/singer friend (the funny James Corden) after her newly christened pop star boyfriend (Levine) cheated on her and ended their relationship. Ruffalo (“Now You See Me”) is a divorced alcoholic who had just been dumped by the record label he helped to found. Corden talks Knightly into performing a song on stage and Ruffalo is instantly smitten by her voice.

What follows are interesting stops and starts in terms of a music and potential life partnership between Ruffalo and Knightly, both of whom come across as warm and likeable. For that matter, even Levine has redeemable qualities – there are no real villains in this movie. That lack of real conflict is a weakness in “Born Again.” And Carney fails to gain the same musical authenticity he created in “Once.”

But those faults do not make “Born Again” a bad movie. Ruffalo is at his best as a stumbling, goofball musical genius whose struggles with alcoholism have created holes in his life. Knightly steals most of the scenes she is in. She is well cast here. Knightly is not beautiful enough to be a traditional leading lady. Her voice is not good enough to become a singing star. But the merge of her talents in “Born Again” create a wonderful performance.

Her vocals in “Like A Fool” are raw, powerful and mournful as she contemplates life without Levine. “We take a chance from time to time; And put our necks out on the line; And you have broken every promise that we made; And I have loved you anyway.”

And Levine, well, I came away again wondering if there is anything this man cannot do. The front man for Maroon Five had previously proven his chops as a singer, writer and actor. He is sensational in “Born Again” as the overnight rock star who loses his way and then tries valiantly to find his way home again.

“Born Again” will not be a box office smash. The aforementioned “Lucy” and “Hercules” raked in a combined $73 million in their opening weekends, finishing 1-2 on the charts. “Begin Again” has earned just $12 million over its first two weekends.

But it is a well crafted film and well worth the price of your movie ticket.