Saw this last weekend, and I had pretty high expectations for it, based on the word of mouth and reviews that I'd seen. I think it is a welcome relief in the heat of summer from the usual hollywood crap to see a small, cinema verite bittersweet romance make it to the multiplexes, which could account for its popularity with the starved moviegoing public. I was a bit underwhelmed. The music was ok, the male lead "guy" (Glen Hansard) who I had seen before as the guitar player in "the Commitments" was great, his singing was impassioned, his awkward mooning over the girl was believable, and his quiet relationship with his vacuum cleaner repairman father was cute. The "girl" on the other hand, I just didn't see what he saw in her, her vocals and piano playing were a bit dull and wooden, her personality wasn't really fleshed out very much - perhaps it was enough for her to just "like his music" (where did the money come from to rent to recording studio? I'm a bit unclear on that?). As for the film overall, a bit heavy on the MTV sequences (but probably more enjoyable to watch than more painfully awkward conversations). The 'Dublin Street Musician' culture that we got a glimpse of in the beginning was kind of quirky and interesting, and on the plus side, the movie really knew how not to overstay its welcome, clocking in under 90 minutes (ending just about at the point where I was checking my wife's luminous watch to see how much more of the movie we had coming).