Begin Again (2014)

This film was pretty good though it could have been better.
Dan Mulligan (Mark Ruffalo) is a bum. He used to be a brilliant music producer but his life is in shambles. His wife (Catherine Keener) cheated on him, his daughter, Violet (Hailee Steinfeld) dresses like a slut and he just lost his job.
Gretta (Keira Knightley) is also down on her luck. For five years, she was a devoted girlfriend to her up and coming musician boyfriend, Dave Kohl (Adam Levine) only find out through his new song that he cheated on her. He is pissed that she can read his mind.
Gretta has her own sound and she is stripped down but excellent. Her talent is raw and Dan picks up on that and even persuades her to record her own album. Gretta goes from being a songwriter to full blown performer but this album must be done on the cheap as Dan's partner at the record studio (Yaslin Bey) doesn't like it much. So they set out into the streets literally recording the album in the streets with a bunch of unknown musicians. The result is brilliant and once it is finished the studio is interested but Gretta is unconventional. She doesn't understand why the studio would get so much of the money from her album, plus they would make all these changes to it, changes she would not approve of. She's seen it happen. Dave took this brilliant, emotional ballad she wrote for him and turned it into this horrid pop mash up with some crappy falsetto.
The film ends after the credits have already begun with Gretta releasing the album herself, online for dirt cheap but it is a hit and it will probably only increase as the word of mouth spreads.
As for the relationships, Gretta encourages Violet to not dress as though she's easy and urges Dan to spend more time with his daughter. Though it probably wasn't easy, Dan eventually forgave his estranged wife, Miriam and he moves back home. And despite Dave practically begging Gretta to forgive him and he even plays the song the way it was meant to be for her, she still walks away from him.
This film does have some good performances even Adam Levine is good. None of them are Oscar worthy by any means, but everyone is good with Knightley standing out as her voice is great and fits the character perfectly. Fortunately, the songs are great and strongly carry the film. The setting of the actual New York City is also great. Sure, curse words are used too frequently and the timeline gets a little jumbled here and there  And the ending was completely underminded by having it end and then the credits begin and then continuing the film when Gretta actually releases her album almost as though it is an afterthought which it should never be.
Also look for some scene stealing performances from Cee Lo Green and James Corden. This film may not have been bad but I probably won't watch it again anytime soon. Grade: B