Review: The Saddest Music in the World

Posted by: Timo Puolitaipale  •  April 30, 2004 @ 11:59am

Filed under: Reviews

The Saddest Music in the World, adapted from a screenplay by Booker Prize-winner Kazuo Ishiguro, takes us back to Winnipeg in 1933. The depression has gripped Winnipeg, but local beer baroness and amputee Lady Port-Huntly (Isabella Rossellini) launches a contest with which to catch the imagination of the world. She sets up a competition to determine who plays the saddest music ever. Broadcast from Winnipeg by radio to the far corners of the world, musicians flock from Scotland to Mongolia to claim the title. Among them is humiliated Broadway producer Chester Kent (played incredibly by Mark McKinney), who is determined to be victorious. What comes next is a music-fest full of hilarious comedy and competition.

It has been said over and over again that one either loves Guy Maddin's movies or hates them. Maddin's experimental style and the visual eccentricity of his movies divides the public down the middle, and it isn't an uncommon sight to see people leave the theater before a Maddin movie comes to an end. But if you stay, you'll be pleasantly rewarded. This is most true for The Saddest Music in the World. Stylized to resemble movies from a bygone era and incorporating experimental filmmaking techniques, the visual layering can be a task for a mainstream moviegoer, but a thing of beauty for Maddin fans. The story, though, is a thing to be loved by all.

The Saddest Music in the World is the pinnacle of Guy Maddin's filmmaking, at least for now. The comedy in the movie is universal and well-executed, and the story carries along more than smoothly and rewards the audience with a slick twist and turn that offers up a surprise ending. If there is any new Canadian movie to see this year, The Saddest Music in the World is definitely a rocket to watch.