The late 90s through the early 00s were a breeding ground for urban legends, as we saw in Magnolia (1999), Darwin Awards (2006) and of course the Urban Legends film & TV franchise spanning the decade. Maybe it's due to the fact that the internet, with its viral sensationalism, had just become popular while fact-checking resources had not yet caught up. This made for some very creative storytelling at the expense of truth. But heck, isn't that what storytelling is all about.
Here we have "Gloomy Sunday" (1999) an intriguing story woven around the titular song which, as urban legend has it, caused or accompanied some 20 suicides (exaggerated to "hundreds" in the film). In reality, the song has never been credibly linked to any suicides except that a lot of people in Hungary killed themselves in the 30s when the song was recorded. But I dunno, maybe Hungary's Great Depression had a little more of a role in that statistic?
Enough history. The rest of my review approaches this film as a pure work of fiction, and it's a pretty good one. It's not simply a 2-dimensional message like "sad songs kill people" but it cuts more to the root of what suicide is, the complexity of what motivates it (not just having a sucky life, otherwise a lot more of us would be at the bottom of San Francisco Bay), and how music, art, love and war resonate with the concept of killing oneself.
The story revolves around a love rectangle between the song's composer (a piano player in a restaurant), a waitress, the restaurant owner and a regular diner in the resaurant. But it's no ordinary "jealous lover" type of cliché. Rather, the theme of love, just like the theme of death, is that it is a personal choice that cannot be subjected to society's morals or rules. In other words, the lovers place no conventional expectations on each other (though fury & resentment does play into it). Immediately it strikes you as a love story worth paying attention to.
Next comes the theme of war, particularly World War II and the Nazi persecution of Jewish people. This adds tremendous spice, depth and peril to the situation. It's handled in a subtle yet chilling way that reminds me of the excellent Benigni film around the same time "Life Is Beautiful".
Last but certainly not least is the story's climax and resolution which, itself is worth the price of admission. Let's just say I did not see it coming. And when a film can do that (without being ridiculous) I'm always impressed. I can't imagine anyone who wouldn't be.
The music itself is nice, if you like the song "Gloomy Sunday", but if I were to nitpick, I have to say I didn't like the Heather Nova cover of the song at the closing credits because it featured the "updated" lyrics that were added to the English version in 1936 to make it less depressing (I'm talking about the "dreaming, I was only dreaming" part). I know Billie Holiday popularized that amendment in her famous version, but Billie is allowed to do whatever she damn wants!
Bottom line: great story, great production, great acting & cinematography. But, as with the excellent film "Amadeus", don't expect to study for your musical history exam by watching it. This is creative storytelling at its best.
