Glen Hansard makes singing feel like something a character needs to do, with frustration audible in the force of his voice. In Once, that directness makes a modest musical romance unusually persuasive.
Fi1m perspective
In Once (2007), Glen Hansard sings with enough force to make the frustration of his Dublin busker, Guy, audible before it needs explaining. We were moved by the roughness of his singing, because it lets us hear feelings the character otherwise keeps guarded. John Carney gives the music time, and Hansard makes that patience worthwhile. He can sound almost too insistent, but there is something convincing about a man who finds it easier to sing than to say what he means. We recommend the performance warmly, particularly for the way it works alongside Markéta Irglová’s quieter presence.
His screen work has been occasional, with music remaining his main occupation. Alan Parker’s The Commitments (1991) gave him the supporting part of guitarist Outspan Foster in its Dublin soul band. We rate that film for its funny, unruly company and the importance it gives the songs, though a little too much polish creeps in. The lead in Once was a more revealing use of him, allowing his singing to carry feelings that dialogue might have made obvious.
Carney’s useful decision is to give Guy and Irglová’s Girl music to make together before asking us to care about their attraction. Hansard and Irglová supply the music as well as the central performances, so playing feels like work they know how to do. Her quieter presence and their ease together stop his urgency becoming exhausting. We do occasionally wish the songwriting would press its feelings less firmly upon us. The rough photography can also make it harder to concentrate on the people, an unnecessary obstacle when the performances deserve close attention.
His musician roles draw on his experience as a Dublin busker, which helps explain why the playing rarely feels like an actor demonstrating a newly acquired skill. A later small role in the musical Cyrano (2021) continued that association with films built around songs. There is a narrow body of screen work here, and little basis for grand claims about what else he might have played. Start with Once, and give the songs time; his partnership with Irglová is worth a few rough edges.
Biography
Glen Hansard is an Irish actor and musician. He played Outspan Foster in the 1991 film The Commitments.
He starred as Guy in the 2007 film Once, for which he shared the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Hansard has also appeared in Cyrano (2021) and provided a voice for an episode of The Simpsons (2009). Primarily known as frontman of the band The Frames since 1990 and as one half of the duo The Swell Season, he released solo albums including Rhythm and Repose (2012).
Born in Dublin in 1970, Hansard died in 2026.
