Once

Exclusive DVD extra: The Story

The sweetest little musical of the year is a modest story about two musicians in Dublin -- a vacuum cleaner repairman and busker (Glen Hansard) and a Czech immigrant and single mother (Markéta Irglová) getting by on odd jobs -- who have a romance of sorts through music. Not the old-fashioned Hollywood way of bursting into song, but sitting down to play and sing together and collaborating on compositions. "This small film is a huge surprise -- brilliant simply because it doesn't try so hard to be brilliant -- and it's one of the year's best," writes Associated Press critic Christy Lemire. The disc features a gentle commentary track with director John Carney and actors/musicians Hansard and Irglová, as well as musical commentary on select scenes with all three of them. "Making a Modern Day Musical" is an easygoing behind-the-scenes featurette, and "More Guy, More Girl" traces the development of the characters and their relationship. Also features a very primitive animated promotional webisode (set to "Broken Hearted Hoover Fixer Sucker Guy") and a music download of "Falling Slowly."