A case study in contradiction, The Swell Season both complements the terribly romantic 2007 film Once and also seals it off as a starry-eyed art-life imitation from when the off-screen romance of stars Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova equaled the one depicted therein. For fans, it serves as microscope — under which the couple and the band intimately operate — and magnifying glass, adding extra scrutiny to a relationship already weakened by the sudden fame and uncertain feelings that follow an Oscar win and whirlwind tour. The documentary — co-directed by Nick August-Perna, Chris Dapkins, and Carlo Mirabella-Davis — may take its title from the couple’s band, but it also evokes a particular time and place, a sense of the spotlight not fading but rather searing whatever is placed in front of it.

Having worked as a busker since his teens, Glen’s a bit more comfortable with the attention that he’s sought all his life, but Marketa, who filmed Once as a teenager, finds the devotion of strangers disconcerting. While each fan in each town may only be asking for a little — an autograph, a photograph, and so on — it has come to take an increasing toll on their relationship. It’s an emotional erosion captured by the trio in decidedly unromantic black-and-white, and while the film may come off as a somewhat piecemeal account to anyone unfamiliar with its subjects, The Swell Season still depicts plenty of strikingly candid moments.

Hansard tries to downplay his moment of Academy Awards glory in front of his ever-beaming mother while Irglova dreads meet-and-greets that only further propel any notion of her, and their, celebrity. Her wariness isn’t a selfish thing, but an understandably defensive response to an overwhelming situation that arises overnight and night after night thereafter. As they sign a Once poster for admirers, they point out how they were digitally manipulated by Fox Searchlight to appear even closer together; every other scene quietly attests how the success of that movie would come to drive them apart.

It’s clear that she and Glen have had some of these conversations before, and while they wouldn’t trade their audience for anything in the world, this anonymous, widespread force that supports them as artists clearly divides them as partners. Each lovely performance of a memorable ballad is only rendered more bittersweet as the film progresses. Not to make The Swell Season sound like a fan favorite-turned-blame game, but by its very nature, its subdued existence nonetheless reinforces the potent effect that public scrutiny can have on matters of the heart.

August-Perna, Dapkins, and Mirabella-Davis may generally keep out of the fray, but they do tend to frame those on-screen in close-up, even as they take the stage, until the very end. At that point, as Hansard is shot from behind, he stands alone before a crowd of thousands, fiercely singing and strumming — a perfect encapsulation of his Sisyphean effort to give his heart to somebody he doesn’t know, even when he can no longer share it with someone he once knew.

Grade: B

Tags: glen hansard, marketa irgolva, movie review, once, the swell season