Once star Glen Hansard told me in May, on the eve of the release of his Sundance hit, "My projections for this film are it will come out and, please God if we're lucky, it will create a nice small ripple and that will be that. And I'll be really proud of it forever." As Once continues to make top ten lists (it's number one on mine) and get nominated for awards (including a best picture nomination from the Chicago Film Critics Association), I wonder if Glen realizes that his small ripple has become a wave. In this era of overblown budgets and sequel-itis at its worst, Once reminds us what movies are all about - passionate people making art that can take you to another place. Once came together through a rare combination of creativity and chance - the way a number of classics have - and nearly everyone that has seen it has fallen in love with it to differing degrees. John Carney's film stands as a reminder that the next great film can come from anywhere at any time. It's that unpredictability that makes going to the movies fun.

And buying DVDs. My love for Once, the story of how people can inspire each other to both creativity and action only a few times in their lives, is well-known, so we don't need to cover that ground again. If there were no special features on the Fox DVD for Once, I would still call it a must-buy, just for how much you'll love the film itself. Luckily, that's not the case. Once only has a stereo track, not a full surround track, but that's probably a byproduct of the low budget of the film and it almost adds to the indie charm. This is not the kind of film that needs to come at you from all angles. The simplicity of the stereo track may not be as impressive an audio experience as some other DVDs, but it adds to the fly-on-the-wall, home movie quality of the film. You usually don't see DTS tracks on home movies.

When it comes to extras, Fox has given Once a small-but-perfect (kind of like the film itself) collection. The film comes essentially with two commentary tracks, although one only runs over the music. The tracks include director John Carney and the film's stars, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, and it was a brilliant idea to separate the two halves of the film into two separate commentaries. Listen to the full commentary first for an idea of how the film got made and then you can listen to a music-specific commentary track that talks about the development of each of the songs. The commentaries are the best feature, but the disc also comes with two featurettes and an animated webisode of the song "Broken Hearted Hoover Fixer Sucker Guy".

Once didn't quite turn into the box office phenomenon that those of us who love it thought that it would, which means there a lot of you out there who haven't seen it. Luckily, Fox has treated this gem well, giving it a DVD treatment that Glen can be proud of forever.