Canada (2003)
Length: 99 minutes
Genre: Musical drama
Directed by: Guy Maddin
Starring: Mark McKinney, Isabella Rossellini, Maria de Medeiros, David Fox and Ross McMillan

In the 1930s, during the Great Depression, Winnipeg, a city in Canada, is being awarded the title of the most sorrowful city in the world. As a result of that, Lady Port-Huntley takes the decision to organize an international contest that looks extremely strange, at the first look: contestants from a variety of countries must come to Winnipeg, in Canada, in order to be part of a competition in which all the contestants, depending of which country they represent, play a music in order to receive the award of the saddest music in the world.

Since I was a little bit tired to watch some American movies – I’m not saying that I hate them -, I just took the decision to watch a Canadian film, since many people from Canada do praise their movies. At the first sight, despite being quite good, The Saddest Music in the World doesn’t really look interesting, because we can really wonder why did director Guy Maddin chose to make a black and white movie? Although it is not a piece of entertainment, The Saddest Music in the World is certainly a good movie for cinema students.

Like most movie viewers out there, I am not a fan of musical movies that resemble to a play presented on the stages of Broadway, because I never understood why so many people like these kind of movies such as the outstanding movie Chicago. The particularity with The Saddest Music in the World is certainly its very weird script that is nonetheless very well written, although the movie itself drags a few moments when the pace is slowing down here and there. As strange as it might look, even though director Guy Maddin is not handling a very interesting story, at the first look, we, as the movie viewers, are nevertheless easily tempted to follow the colourful characters that push the narrative forward by touching our heart or by making us laugh with their complexity, quirkiness and depth.

The scenes in which the characters are communicating between each other are quite useful to push the narrative forward, but in my opinion, even though I’m not a great fan of music, I must admit that the best parts of the movie are the scenes in which the characters compete against each other to see who has “the saddest music in the world”. Beautifully shot, the musical scenes do have the potential to amaze and entertain the sternest judges of all, but it’s a little bit too sad that they don’t occupy a great place in the movie, because The Saddest Music in the World could have been more interesting.

As I’ve said it, The Saddest Music in the World is not a movie that you rent for entertainment. In fact, if you’re a heavy movie lover, I can suggest this movie to you if you’re looking for good performances delivered by unknown actors, but very competent ones without a doubt. Maria de Medeiros (Pulp Fiction), as the young and charming Narcissa, does a good job with her charisma and moreover, she shows an undeniable talent for singing and dancing. Mark McKinney, as Chester Kent, the Broadway producer who represents the United States of America, is superb and very dazzling at the same time. Isabella Rossellini, as Lady Port-Huntley, holds a very consistent and simple role, but she deserves to be recognised for her great involvement in this strange Canadian movie.

Finally, if you really enjoyed watching the American musical comedy Chicago, I’m sure that you will certainly spend a good time watching this quirky and smart Canadian movie if you’re looking for good performances from very competent actors that you are not going to forget once you’re done with watching The Saddest Music in the World.

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