This is the story of how a song saved two lives.
Gretta
Gretta (Keira Knightley) and Dave (Adam Levine) are a musician couple – she’s the songwriter, he’s the performer.
Dave suddenly becomes famous, and they both move to New York where he cheats on Gretta.
Heartbroken, Gretta leaves and ventures alone into a strange city. She begins living with a musician friend Steve (James Corden).
Steve, during a gig at a bar, goads Gretta into taking the stage.
She begins to sing…
Dan
Dan (Mark Ruffalo) is a miserable alcoholic. A once renowned record label executive, he is struggling to find music he can relate to and produce.
He is estranged from his wife and barely has a relationship with his daughter (Hailee Steinfeld).
He gets fired and goes on a bender, ending up in a bar just as a young woman takes the mic to sing.
He begins to listen…
Following their encounter, Dan and Gretta, after some misadventures, make a live album which becomes hot property.
They form a friendship, and fill the void in each other through their shared love of music.
Dan is rehired, and mends his relationship with his family, and Gretta is on the verge of signing a mega-deal.
Now, the ending.
A remorseful Dave calls Gretta and begs for another chance; he says they should meet. Gretta reluctantly agrees.
They meet and dissect each other’s music. Years ago, when they were together, Gretta had gifted a song to Dave – Lost Stars, a serene and soulful love ballad.
But when Dave plays the song, Gretta is horrified. The song has become hyper commercialised and lost its essence.
She was thinking Dylan, but he made it Bieber.
She could perhaps look past the cheating, but this was something else, he was changing at a fundamental level.
For her, music is deeply personal, while Dave wants to entertain the crowd. Whereas in the past, they were both on the same page.
Dave says audiences love the song and invites Gretta to a performance where he says he will play the song as she had imagined it.
Gretta turns up. And in the beginning, she’s delighted because Dave is playing her acoustic arrangement of the song. Perhaps there is hope for us yet
Turn the page maybe we'll find a brand new ending
The crowd is mildly enthusiastic.
But something happens.
During the course of the song, Dave changes tempo and reverts to playing the commercialised rendition of the song.
The crowd goes wild. This is what they came to see. Dave is right with them, its where he wants to be.
Gretta takes a forlorn look at Dave. She knows now that there’s no going back for him. He’s changed, this is who he is now.
He will play this music, go on tours, and there will always be another woman.
But are we all lost stars, trying to light up the dark?
They are now fundamentally different.
Gretta though is at peace. She was torn over Dave, but now she knows that there is no future for them. She finds closure.
Dave meanwhile, continues to be torn.
Gretta cycles through the city with newfound hope in her heart as Dan rekindles his relationship with his wife.
Gretta decides against taking a mega-deal, choosing instead to release her album online for $1.
It sells 10,000 copies on the first day.
The story, among other things, tells us that love is fickle, and pain is inevitable because much like life, pain finds a way.
But just like Gretta and Dan, you have to find a way to live with the pain, channel it towards a positive goal, and perhaps, someday conquer it.
And then, you Begin Again.
I’m not a big fan of the word ‘underrated,’ I think it’s routinely misused and abused.
So I won’t use that word here, although I will say that Begin Again (2014) is a special movie, and deserves more love than it gets.
P.S Here’s the link to the ending if anyone’s interested -
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